South Carolina Governor Signs ‘Help Not Harm’ Law
South Carolina Governor Henry McMaster signed a Help Not Harm law, protecting children from damaging and experimental “transgender” medical interventions, such as puberty blockers, opposite-sex hormones and surgeries.
The bill overwhelmingly passed the South Caroline House and Senate, as the Daily Citizen recently reported.
The legislation, H. 4624, states,
A physician, mental health provider, or other health care professional shall not engage in the provision or performance of gender transition procedures to a person under eighteen years of age.
The new law also protects parental rights in education, prohibiting school staff from withholding important information from parents regarding a child’s sexual identity confusion, stating:
A nurse, counselor, teacher, principal, or other official or staff at a public school shall not knowingly:
(1) encourage or coerce a minor to withhold from the minor’s parent or legal guardian the fact that the minor’s perception of his or her gender is inconsistent with his or her sex; or
(2) withhold from a minor’s parent or legal guardian information related to the minor’s perception that his or her gender is inconsistent with his or her sex.
South Carolina is the 24th state to pass such a ban on drugs, hormones and surgeries for sexually confused minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBT advocacy group. Arizona only bans irreparable, body-mutilating surgeries for minors. The Project lists 15 states and Washington, D.C. with “shield laws” that legally protect this experimentation on children.
Pro-family, pro-child groups were quick to praise the signing of H. 4624. Family Policy Alliance (FPA), a Focus on the Family ally, launched its Help Not Harm campaign in August 2021, saying:
The project aims to multiply the number of states that legally protect children from the damage of transgender interventions.
FPA called the law “a massive win for vulnerable children.” In a press release, Director of Public Policy Joseph Kohm said:
H. 4624, which is based on our model Help Not Harm bill, will protect vulnerable South Carolina children struggling with gender dysphoria from the irreversible harm of so-called gender transition procedures. These dangerous, experimental, and irreversible procedures include mastectomies or “top surgery,” as well as puberty blocking drugs and cross sex hormones.
Kohm congratulated Palmetto Family Council, a Focus on the Family-allied group, for working to help pass the legislation.
Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Matt Sharp explained the need for the law protecting children:
There are only two sexes – male and female – and denying this basic truth hurts vulnerable children. Now and always, our kids deserve the loving embrace of family members who guide them toward this truth, along with access to safe and effective counseling. Most minors wrestling with gender dysphoria who receive this grow into comfort with their bodies by adulthood.
Sharp added:
Children shouldn’t be subjected to harmful, often irreversible drugs and surgeries that block healthy puberty, alter hormonal balances, and remove healthy organs and body parts. This radical agenda has devastated countless lives, which is why several countries – including Sweden, England, and Finland – have changed course, and now a growing number of states have enacted similar protections.
England’s Dr. Hilary Cass, a former president of the U.K.’s Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, was commissioned by National Health Service England to review and recommend “how to improve NHS gender identity services.”
Dr. Cass released her long-awaited final report in April 2024 – a robust 388-pages with 12 detailed research-based appendices that was four full years in the making.
In the forward to her report, Dr. Cass stated:
This is an area of remarkably weak evidence, and yet results of studies are exaggerated or misrepresented by people on all sides of the debate to support their viewpoint. The reality is that we have no good evidence on the long-term outcomes of interventions to manage gender related distress.
South Carolina’s Help Not Harm law affirms what her review of the literature established: There is no evidence that “transgender medicine” helps children.
It’s great news that another state has moved to protect children from disfiguring transgender procedures and to safeguard parental rights.
Please pray more states will enact this important legislation. Consider getting involved with your state’s family policy council to enact positive change and help protect children in your community.
Focus on the Family exists to help families, and that includes help navigating the issues of homosexuality and transgenderism. Focus offers a free, one-time counseling consultation with a licensed or pastoral counselor. To request a counseling consultation, call 1-855-771-HELP (4357) or fill out our Counseling Consultation Request Form.
Related articles and resources:
Counseling Consultation & Referrals
Addressing Gender Identity with Honesty and Compassion
The Journey Back to My True Identity
U.K.’s Review of Child Gender Policy Reveals Profound Failures That U.S. Still Defends
Image from Twitter.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jeff Johnston is a culture and policy analyst for Focus on the Family and a staff writer for the Daily Citizen. He researches, writes and teaches about topics of concern to families such as parental rights, religious freedom, LGBT issues, education and free speech. Johnston has been interviewed by CBS Sunday Morning, The New York Times, Associated Press News, The Christian Post, Rolling Stone and Vice, and is a frequent guest on radio and television outlets. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from San Diego State University with a Bachelors in English and a Teaching Credential. He and his wife have been married 30 years and have three grown sons.