A joint committee of Florida's state medical boards voted Friday to draft a rule that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth, including puberty blockers, hormone therapies, and surgery.
Members of the Florida Boards of Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine Joint Rules/Legislative Committee approved regulatory language that would prohibit both medical and surgical treatment for gender dysphoria in people under 18, according to a .
The drafted rule is expected to be presented at a meeting on November 4, when the full membership will decide whether or not to finalize it, a spokesperson for the Florida Department of Health confirmed to MedPage Today.
Several states have passed laws restricting transgender healthcare, but Florida's medical boards are the first to pursue a ban on healthcare for transgender pediatric patients.
The boards first agreed to begin drafting rules on treatment for transgender youth in August, after the Department of Health released new in April recommending against the provision of gender-affirming care, citing a "lack of conclusive evidence, and the potential for long-term, irreversible effects."
In their guidance, they stated that they did not recommend social transition, puberty blockers, hormones, or surgery for children, and recommended support from family and peers, as well as counseling from a licensed mental health professional.
In June, Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration that supported the guidelines, stating that treatment for gender dysphoria, such as hormones, puberty blockers, and surgery are "not consistent with widely accepted professional medical standards and are experimental and investigational with the potential for harmful long term affects [sic]."
Soon after the release of this report, Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, MD, PhD, asked the Board of Medicine to establish a standard of care for these "complex and irreversible procedures," according to a obtained by NBC News.
Medical organizations and LGBTQ+ advocacy groups spoke out in opposition to the guidance, pointing out that it contradicted standards of care endorsed by federal health officials and major medical groups, including the , the , and the , which support mental healthcare, as well as treatment such as puberty suppression, for pediatric patients, but not surgery until adulthood.
Lisa Gwynn, DO, president of the , noted that "it's disheartening that Florida's health agency continues to issue child-health guidance that conflicts with broad scientific consensus and without the consultation of pediatric physicians."
This decision by the medical boards' joint committee is the latest in a movement by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and his administration to restrict transgender healthcare. In addition to the decisions around transgender youth, Florida's Medicaid regulator approved rules in August that blocked state-subsidized healthcare from covering gender-affirming care.