PIERRE, S.D. – Legislation that aimed to prevent South Dakota physicians from giving gender confirmation procedures to children under 16 has been stopped by a Senate committee.
A Republican-dominated Senate committee voted 5-2 to kill the proposal. Republican Senators who opposed the bill said they were not convinced that the Legislature should delve into the issue.
Conservative lawmakers in nearly a dozen other states are pushing similar proposals. Proponents of the bill amended their proposal to get rid of the criminal charges against physicians.
It would have allowed children who received procedures to sue physicians if they regretted the procedures.