20-03-2025
House panel endorses bills to ban medical procedures for transgender minors
Mar. 19—A key House committee endorsed two bills along party lines to prevent minors from getting hormone treatments or breast surgeries tied to their attempts to transition from one gender to another.
State Rep. Lisa Mazur, R-Goffstown, said a growing number of health care providers are declining to provide these procedures because some minors later regret altering their bodies.
"I know this is an emotional subject. The big question to ask is do children change their minds? If so, please pass this bill because it gives them the time they need to truly understand the long-term impacts of these medical decisions," Mazur said.
State Rep. Jessica Lamontagne, D-Dover, chastised Republicans for "hypocrisy," supporting the right of parents to make decisions for their children except when it comes to treatment for transgender minors.
"Most people have no regret with this treatment and feel it has changed their lives," Lamontagne said.
The House Health, Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee voted by identical 10-8 margins in favor of these bills banning puberty blockers and hormone treatments (HB 377) and breast surgery for minors that is elective (HB 712).
All Republicans on the committee voted for them, all House Democrats opposed them.
The ban on puberty blockers would make providing that treatment a Class B felony that could carry up to a 3 1/2 —to 7-year term in state prison.
Mazur convinced the committee to amend her bill to allow minors who are getting these treatments to wean off of them over up to a six-month period.
Medical providers who gave minors breast surgery services under the second bill could be subject to professional discipline.
The bill would permit minors to receive breast surgery to "treat malignancy, injury, infection, or malformation."
State banned anti-gay conversion therapy in 2018
Rep. Gary Woods, D-Bow, a retired surgeon, said lawmakers should not interfere in the practice of medicine.
"The patient, doctor and parent are involved in medical decision making," Woods said. "What we are asking is for the Legislature to not intervene in that doctor and patient relationship."
Mazur said minors are too young to have these procedures.
"Children will never ever be able to come back from these life-altering surgeries that remove completely healthy body parts," Mazur said.
In 2024, the Republican-led Legislature passed and former Gov. Chris Sununu signed legislation that outlawed minors having surgeries that altered their sex organs.
State Rep. Tim Hartnett, D-Manchester, said the legislation goes too far.
"This bill isn't banning hormone treatment for everybody. It is banning it for one narrow class of people and that's discriminatory," Hartnett added.
Rep. Erica Layon, R-Derry, said many health care providers are reluctant to counsel minors against having these procedures.
That's because the Legislature in 2018 outlawed conversion therapy which is the practice of a clinician trying to encourage patients to be heterosexual, she said.
What's Next: The full House of Representatives will vote on both bills early next month
Prospects: Pretty decent. Conservative Republicans in the House and Senate have supported similar bills in recent years.
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