The bill now moves to the state Senate.
Idaho’ House of Representatives passed a bill Tuesday that would criminalize gender reassignment surgeries and gender-affirming health care for people under the age of 18. Under HB 657, an update to the state’s 2019 ban on female genital mutilation, medical personnel who provide gender-affirming health care and parents who agree for their child to receive such care could face life in prison. The bill passed the Republican controlled House by a vote of 55-13 and now makes its way to the Senate. The only Republican to vote no on the measure was Represtantive Fred Wood, a retired licensed physician. In its current form, the bill would make anybody who « knowingly engages » in specific forms of medical care « to change or affirm the child’s perception of the child’s sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child’s biological sex, » including non-surgical options like puberty blockers or testosterone injections, guilty of a felony.
