A Republican state senator in Louisiana joined Democrats on a vote to kill a bill that would ban transgender surgeries on children in the state.
Republican state Senator Fred Mills joined Democrats in a 5-4 vote on the Health and Welfare Committee to block the advancement of a bill that would have banned using cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and surgery “to alter a minor’s appearance in an attempt to validate a minor’s perception of his sex, if the minor’s perception is inconsistent with his sex.”
The bill had previously passed the House in a vote of 71-24, before it was moved along to the Republican-dominated state Senate. Included in the bill was a prohibition on transgender surgeries, including those “that artificially constructs tissue having the appearance of genitalia differing from the minor’s sex, including metoidioplasty, phalloplasty, and vaginoplasty.”
It was sponsored by Republican Representative Gabe Firment and called the “Stop Harming Our Kids Act.”
“This bill simply protects kids from harm by ending the use of unproven, experimental, and irreversible chemical and surgical procedures on children in Louisiana suffering from a condition called gender dysphoria,” Firment said during his testimony at the Wednesday committee hearing. “These children deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and our best served by compassionate and effective mental health care and counseling.”
“Senators, when you hear testimony from those in the healthcare field opposed to this bill, I want you to consider how lucrative these experimental procedures are for the gender industry. A single subcutaneous implant of a puberty blocking agent can cost up to $50,000,” Firment added. “We know that starting kids on puberty blockers practically always leads to injecting children with extraordinary doses of wrong-sex hormones, then to mutilating surgeries, and then to being lifelong customers of the gender industry and big pharma.”
Firment said that he was worried that Louisiana would become a destination for people in other states in the South to bring their kids for transgender procedures since lawmakers have taken action in nearby Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas.
Mills, a pharmacist, who some conservatives criticized on Twitter for taking campaign donations from pharmaceutical groups like Pfizer and PHRMA, has been in office since 2011. The Daily Wire has reached out to Mills’ office for comment on his vote.
BREAKING: After passing the House, a bill in Louisiana that would have banned pediatric sex changes just failed in the Senate Health and Welfare Committee because ‘Republican’ State Senator Fred Mills voted with Democrats to kill it.
One look at his donors shows massive… pic.twitter.com/JFhBvHc5q4
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) May 24, 2023
“I’ve always in my heart of hearts believed that a decision should be made by a patient and a physician. I believe in the physicians in Louisiana, I believe people that are licensed by the Board of Medical Examiners are well regulated,” Mills said during the hearing, claiming that it was the job of the board of medical examiners to ensure there was no malpractice related to the transgender procedures.
It was reported that Democrat Governor John Bel Edward had been pushing lawmakers to block the bill. Since Louisiana Republicans have a supermajority in both chambers, they could have overturned a veto if the bill made it out of the Senate.
At least 18 other states have passed measures that ban life-altering transgender surgeries on children.
