April 14 (UPI) — Missouri’s Republican attorney general, Andrew Bailey, has issued emergency regulations that ban gender-affirming healthcare unless specific and strict requirements are met, sparking outrage from civil rights and LGBTQ advocates who have vowed to take legal action against the state.
Bailey promulgated the emergency regulation Thursday, clarifying that state laws already prohibit gender-affirming care by arguing that such medical treatment is “experimental.”
Some of the requirements to be applied to gender-affirming care include mandating at least 18 months of therapy, a comprehensive screening for autism and three years of documented proof of a “long-lasting, persistent and intense pattern of gender dysphoria” before a patient can receive treatment.
Minors seeking such medical care must also receive an annual comprehensive screening for social media addiction and compulsion.
Bailey described the new rule as needed to protect children from what he described as experimental medicine, despite leading medical organizations, such as the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the World Health Organization, supporting the administration of gender-affirming care.
The rule is to go into effect April 27 and will expire Feb. 6.
Bailey issued the new rule as his office investigates a St. Louis pediatric transgender center where an employee said they had witnessed an array of mistreatment. The Washington University Transgender Center said it was taking the allegations seriously and were looking to ascertain the facts.
“My office is stepping up to protect children throughout the state while we investigate the allegations and how they are harming children,” Bailey said in a statement.
Lambda Legal and the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri responded to the rule by reassuring Missourians that they will sue Bailey over attacking gender-affirming care.
“The attorney general’s so-called emergency rule is based on distorted, misleading and debunked claims and ignores the overwhelming body of scientific and medical evidence supporting this care as well as the medical experts and doctors who work with transgender people every day,” the two civil rights legal organizations said in a joint statement.
“This rule is a shocking attempt to exploit Missouri’s consumer protection laws in order to play politics with life-saving medical care.”
The announcement comes as Republicans have sought to restrict gender-affirming care nationwide amid a wider legislative push targeting the rights of the LGBTQ community.
The Equality federation is tracking 117 healthcare bans targeting transgender people in the United States, while the ACLU has tallied 452 bills it describes as anti-LGBTQ legislation that have been introduced this year.
“Denying anyone access to age-appropriate, medically necessary and often lifesaving healthcare is always harmful; singling out transgender Missourians is cruel and discriminatory,” the Human Rights Campaign said in a statement.
“The attorney general is dangerously politicizing medical decisions that should be left to individuals and their doctors, taking away the right of transgender people of all ages to make decisions about their own healthcare and surrendering to anti-LGBTQ+ hate groups even if it means endangering the lives of Missourians.”