Nov. 4 (UPI) — The Florida Board of Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Medicine on Friday approved a draft rule to ban medical or surgical gender-affirming care for transgender individuals under 18.
The board voted 6-3 (with five others not present) to adopt the new standards that forbid doctors to prescribe puberty blockers and hormones of perform surgeries until transgender patients are 18. Doctors who flout the rules risk losing their medical licenses.
“The chief point of agreement among all of the experts – and I must emphasize this – is that there is a pressing need for additional, high-quality clinical research,” Dr. David A. Diamond, a radiation oncologist and the chair of the board, said on Friday, according to the New York Times.
The two boards did disagree on an exception for youth enrolled in Food and Drug Administration Institutional Review Board-approved, university-centered clinical research trials. The Board of Medicine struck the exception from the rule. The Board of Osteopathic Medicine retained the exception.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and other major medical groups in the U.S. have condemned state bans as dangerous political intrusions into standard medical practice. Studies have shown that these medical interventions can help ameliorate body-related distress and improve the adolescents’ well-being.
Arkansas and Alabama have also outlawed similar treatments, although both of those are currently subject to lawsuits.
The ruling by the medical boards circumvented the state’s Republican-led legislature, which had declined to take up the bills.
According to the New York Times, eight members of Florida’s board have donated a combined total of nearly $100,000 to Mr. DeSantis’s campaigns over the past decade. Four members have each donated more than $15,000.
