A Republican lawmaker in Virginia has introduced a bill in the state legislature that is designed to ban medical professionals from performing gender transitioning procedures on children. Reports indicate the legislation is likely to be killed in committee by progressive Democrats in the state Senate.
State Sen. Amanda Chase (R) sponsored the Virginia Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act this week. The bill would ban all gender transition procedures for minors and would prohibit the use of state taxpayer funds to pay for such procedures on adults.
The child abuse must stop now. Woke doctors are emotionally manipulating parents into believing mutilating a minor will save their life.
Virginia Republican Proposes Total Ban on Child Genital Mutilation, Chemical Castration 'Transitions' https://t.co/M63axDpzO4— Senator Amanda Chase (@AmandaChaseVA) December 2, 2022
The bill provides that Virginia physicians may not prescribe puberty-blocking medication or hormone treatments for children. It also prohibits elective genital mutilation surgeries for any patient under age 18.
Chase told local reporters this week that she has been discussing the bill with a state lawmaker in Arkansas who successfully sponsored similar legislation that was enacted there. She said that the Virginia legislature must “protect minors, regardless of the mental state of the parents.”
Chase cited statistics showing that up to 90% of children who begin gender transition change their minds about the process at some later time.
She added, “This is child abuse.”
While observers believe the bill will not make it out of committee in the Democrat-controlled state Senate, it could also die on the Republican governor’s desk should it ever make it that far.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) has expressed reservations about Chase’s SAFE Act, citing parental rights. The governor said of the bill: “I do believe that, at the end of the day, these are decisions that are going to have to be made between parents, a child and a trusted physician.”
Youngkin said that in any event, he does not “think that bill, I mean, candidly, is going to ever make it to me.”
The next election for the Virginia state Senate is being held in 2023, and new electoral maps that have been adopted after the last federal census could promote a shift in control of the body to the GOP. In the long run, the SAFE Act could eventually make its way to Youngkin. Voters could learn in that event if he in fact governs consistently with the promises made before his upset win in the 2021 gubernatorial election.
