Florida bans doctors from providing gender-related treatments to minors

The state medical board, whose members are appointed by the governor, has banned doctors from prescribing gender care to new teenage patients.

Florida effectively banned drugs and surgery for new teenage patients seeking gender reassignment after an unprecedented state medical board vote.

This decision is made Florida is one of many states to restrict so-called gender-affirming care for teens, but the first to do so do so through the actions of its board of medicine, whose 14 members were appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis. The strategy circumvented the Republican-controlled state legislature, which had twice refused to pass a bill to restrict such treatment.

The council voted 6-3 (with five others not present) on Friday to pass a new standard of care that prohibits doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and hormones, or performing surgery, until transgender patients are 18 years old. Exceptions will be allowed for children who are already receiving the treatments.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0">The Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine also voted Friday to restrict care to new patients, but allowed a exception for children enrolled in clinical studies. Doctors who flout the rules risk losing their medical license.

"The main point of agreement between all the experts - and I must stress this - is that it there is a pressing need for additional high-quality clinical research,” radiation oncologist and chairman of the board Dr. David A. Diamond said Friday.

The decision followed months of heated discussions, including a tense and at times bitterly divided public meeting in Orlando last week with testimonies from doctors, parents of transgender children and adults who came to regret their transitions.

And it comes four days before the end of the gubernatorial race in the state and as conservatives embrace gendered medical care for adolescents as a key issue on the national political scene. Mr. DeSantis, a Republican widely believed to have presidential ambitions, said in a recent debate that such treatment would not be allowed in Florida. Before the medical board decided to develop the new standard, members received personal calls from state surgeon general Dr. Joseph Ladapo urging them to do so.

Earlier this year, Florida became one of at least nine states to ban Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming care, affecting thousands of low-income adults and children.

These treatments for teens typically include puberty blockers, which block development, often followed by testosterone or estrogen to induce secondary sex characteristics that better align the bodies of transgender adolescents on their experience of gender. A small but growing number of teenage patients are having surgery, most often to remove their breasts. All treatments require parental consent and physician approval.

Major medical groups in the United States, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have condemned the State bans and insurance restrictions on such care as dangerous political intrusions into routine medical practice. Transgender teens struggle with high rates of depression and anxiety, and