Statewide Advocacy Groups, Medical Professionals,
Education Professionals, and Faith Leaders Urge
Lawmakers to Sustain the Governor’s Veto

SB 63 was vetoed by Governor Laura Kelly Tuesday February 11th

TOPEKA, KAN. – Statewide advocacy groups have come together to urge lawmakers to sustain Governor Kelly’s veto and protect young transgender Kansans’ freedom to access healthcare. This is the 4th year that the legislature has attempted to pass a gender affirming care ban on minors. This year's bill, SB63, is an overly broad attack on transgender youth, parents of transgender youth, and the healthcare providers that serve them.

Healthcare professionals, educators, and faith leaders across the state have issued several letters urging lawmakers to sustain the veto, warning them of the numerous consequences of this legislation.

SB 63 would effectively ban access to gender-affirming medical care for trans people under 18 years old and restrict state employees from providing or promoting social transition or gender-affirming care to trans people under 18. This bill would ban physicians licensed by the Board of Health and Healing Arts from providing “gender transition surgery” to trans people under 18, contradicting the most current and comprehensive standards of care guidelines. In their letter to legislators, healthcare providers warned that “SB63 disregards established medical best practices and inflicts significant on an already vulnerable population”


The bill also forces all Kansas medical providers to follow a single, incomprehensive care guideline–illustrating a significant overreach by the government into medical practice standards. The extremely broad language threatens providers such as therapists, nurses, and physicians with strict liability lawsuits and licensure implications and also bans them from obtaining liability insurance to protect themselves.

The bill does not define what it means for a state employee to “promote,” “provide,” or “advocate” for social transition or gender-affirming medical care— disrupting the work of mental and medical health professionals but also school counselors, teachers, daycare providers, and other employees who interact with trans youth. Educators call the bill “another threat to public education” that weaponizes “the relationship education professionals have with their students and parents, and threatens educators who treat their students the way they, and their parents, want to be treated.”

“We’ve heard from Kansans across the state who are so deeply tired of the overreach by extremist lawmakers year after year – and surely by now lawmakers themselves are also weary of their attempts to intrude into our medical decisions.,” Micah Kubic, Executive Director, ACLU of Kansas. “We urge every legislator across the aisle to muster the courage to do the right thing, to fight back against this politicized attack on medical professionals, state employees, and mental health practitioners – and to ensure the governor’s veto on SB 63 stands.”

“If lawmakers wanted a clean bill about healthcare, they would have one, but this bill isn’t that. This bill goes much further than healthcare, it seeks to completely alienate transgender youth and their parents while threatening healthcare providers and state employees who work with minors in the process,” said Melissa Stiehler, Advocacy Director for Loud Light Civic Action. “We urge legislators to vote to sustain the veto if they want to protect Kansans from censorship, from threats against doctors and teachers, and from government overreach into a parent’s right to make the best decisions for their child in public life and in their doctor’s office. ”

“We are urging Legislators to sustain Governor Kelly’s veto of SB 63 It’s important that minors continue to have access to gender affirming care in Kansas,” said Taryn Jones, Policy Director for Equality Kansas “The bills broad language and inclusion of social transitioning attempts to eradicate trans people from Kansas.”

"No one is truly free if they don’t have power and agency over their own body, including the right to medical treatment that allows us to be our authentic selves," said Haley Miller, URGE Midwestern States Field Director. "SB 63 strips young trans Kansans of this right and is an unprecedented overreach of government. The Governor’s veto must be sustained."

"This bill directly undermines medical providers who are committed to delivering evidence-based, lifesaving care to Kansas youth," said Maria Morrissey, Legislative
Director for Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes. "SB 63 not only strips young Kansans of essential health care options but also threatens the very professionals who treat them—placing politics above patient well-being. As advocates for those on the frontlines of this care, we call on legislators to sustain Governor Kelly's veto of this dangerous legislation and protect the right of medical providers to offer best-practice treatment without fear of government retaliation.”

Download the full release here


 

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