Puerto Rico Passes Law Banning Transgender Medical Interventions for Minors

Puerto Rico has recently joined 27 U.S. states in banning transgender medical interventions for minors.

The Law for the Protection of the Health and Well-being of Minors in Puerto Rico (Senate Bill 350), was signed by Puerto Rico Governor Jennifer Gonzalez Colon earlier this month.

The bill “prohibits medical or surgical procedures that alter the sexual biology of minors under the pretext of gender transition, including irreversible hormone interventions.” This includes banning puberty-blocking drugs, androgen blockers, and the prescription of estrogen, progesterone and testosterone.

The law states:

Minors, having not yet reached the necessary emotional, cognitive, and physical maturity, are particularly vulnerable to making decisions that could have irreversible consequences.

Therefore, it is the State’s duty to ensure their comprehensive well-being, protecting them from decisions that could affect their long-term health, especially when these decisions involve irreversible changes in their anatomy and biology.

Additionally, Senate Bill 350 prohibits people under 21-years-old from receiving “surgical procedures that modify or remove sexual organs with the goal of altering their natural biological function, as well as interventions intended to align a minor’s physical appearance with an identity other than their biological sex.”

Violators of the law will face up to 15 years in prison and a $50,000 fine. Any healthcare worker found performing transgender medical interventions may also have their license revoked.

The bill follows a report by the American College of Pediatrics, identifying several serious side effects of puberty blockers. These include osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures and cognitive impairment, as well as an increased risk of sterility, heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, blood clots and cancers.

The study states:

There is not a single long-term study to demonstrate the safety or efficacy of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries for transgender-believing youth.

Puberty blockers may actually cause depression and other emotional disturbances related to suicide.

In addition, there is unpublished evidence that after a year on [puberty blockers] children reported greater self-harm, and the girls also experienced more behavioral and emotional problems and expressed greater dissatisfaction with their body — so puberty blockers exacerbated gender dysphoria.

Earlier this year, President Donald Trump signed an Executive Order titled, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which reads:

Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding. 

Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.

Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called “transition” of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.

Additionally, the Supreme Court recently ruled in United States v. Skrmetti that Tennessee’s prohibition of puberty blocking drugs, opposite-sex hormones and surgeries for minors did not violate the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

Now, Puerto Rico’s law is another step forward in protecting our youth from dangerous and experimental transgender medical interventions. Every person is created in God’s image, and we must encourage our children to affirm His good design for males and females.

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