LANSING — Michigan Republicans on Wednesday introduced a three-bill package that would ban gender transition procedures for minors, including hormone treatments, surgeries that alter genital appearance, and any surgeries resulting in sterilization. The bills, introduced by Rep. Brad Paquette (R-Niles) and Sen. Thomas Albert (R-Lowell), allow exceptions only for minors with medically verifiable disorders of sex development or life-threatening conditions.
"It is time for the experimentation on children in the name of care to come to an end," Paquette said during a press conference announcing the legislation. "Children are not born in the wrong body. No one has the right to maim a healthy child’s body to try to achieve the unachievable."
The legislation would also expand patients’ ability to seek damages for medical malpractice related to transition procedures and would require insurance companies to cover detransition care if they cover transition treatments.
Paquette and Albert's proposal follows a new review issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which expressed concerns about the safety and long-term effects of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and gender-related surgeries in minors. The procedures cited in the federal review would be prohibited under the Michigan legislation.
Paquette and Albert were joined by Prisha Mosley, a detransitioner living in Big Rapids, and Jamie Reed, a former case manager at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children's Hospital, both outspoken critics of gender-affirming care.
"It is critical that legislative bodies step in to protect children in this state from these dangerous and reckless practices," Reed said. "I was complicit in harming patients because the protocol itself harms patients. There is no safe or legal way to sterilize a child, and there is no safe way to medically disrupt a functioning endocrine system."
The three bills were introduced in the Michigan House as House Bills 4466-4468 and referred to the House Committee on Health Policy.
Opposition from LGBTQ advocates and medical groups
Although no Michigan-specific organizations had immediately issued statements about the new bills as of Wednesday afternoon, LGBTQ rights groups and major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, have previously opposed similar bans introduced in other states.
They argue that gender-affirming care is evidence-based, medically necessary, and often critical for the mental health and well-being of transgender youth. Critics of such bans say denying access to care can lead to higher rates of depression and suicide among transgender adolescents.
Democratic leaders, who hold a majority in both the Michigan House and Senate, have not yet announced whether they will consider the legislation.
