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.
