Information: ACLU Map: Alice Feng/Axios

Politicians in red states are putting new limits on gender-affirming care for transgender men and women, building a patchwork of sanctions on overall health providers who supply such solutions and limits on access.

By the numbers: More than one hundred pieces of legislation introduced in state legislatures in 2023 concentrate on banning elements of gender-affirming health-related care, according to information from the American Civil Liberties Union.

• Proponents of the measures have characterized gender-affirming care as “dangerous” and “experimental” health-related procedures. But such care has been deemed medically essential and potentially life-saving for transgender youths by top health-related associations, which includes the American Health-related Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

State of play: Utah in January enacted a law banning gender-affirming overall health care for transgender youth. Considering that then, Mississippi, South Dakota and Tennessee have followed suit.

• Arkansas in 2021 became the initially state to make gender-affirming care for individuals beneath 18 illegal, but the ban is getting challenged in court. A comparable law in Alabama is also on hold.
• Arizona in 2022 enacted a law prohibiting gender-affirming care from getting provided to trans men and women beneath 18. That law is set to take impact in March.
• Florida final year became the initially state to enact a ban via a non-legislative physique, utilizing a health-related board appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Legal professionals worry it could set a precedent for restrictions on other types of overall health care.
• Florida Republicans turned to executive action from DeSantis — who has openly opposed gender-affirming care for minors — following a legislative try failed, per legal professionals.
• In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott issued a directive ordering state agencies to investigate parents for youngster abuse for searching for gender-affirming care for their trans youngsters.

Reality verify: 71% of LGBTQ youth — which includes 86% of trans and nonbinary youth — say that debate about state restrictions on LGBTQ young men and women has negatively impacted their mental overall health, according to a poll by The Trevor Project, which offers crisis intervention and suicide prevention solutions to LGBTQ youth.

Involving the lines: Most anti-trans bills appear to prohibit gender-affirming care for men and women beneath 18, but some states have introduced measures that extend to adults.

• Kansas, South Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas have bills moving via their legislatures to ban care for men and women beneath 21. Texas also has a proposed ban for men and women beneath 26.

Zoom in: Texas and Wyoming have bans that also categorize gender-affirming care as youngster abuse beneath state law.

What else is taking place: Lawmakers in states like Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Oklahoma have introduced bills prohibiting the use of state funds to spend for gender-affirming health-related care, as properly as barring insurers from providing coverage.

What they are saying: Opponents say the measures impose restrictions on the medical doctor-patient connection.

• “Choices about transgender health-related care need to be in between trans individuals, their households, and their medical doctors — not produced by politicians,” mentioned Kasey Suffredini, vice president of advocacy and government affairs at The Trevor Project.

Meanwhile… Lawmakers in at least 21 states are functioning on “trans refugee laws” that would let out-of-state individuals to seek gender-affirming care inside their borders to keep away from criminal prosecution, mentioned Elliot Imse, executive director of LGBTQ Victory Institute, an advocacy group functioning with state lawmakers across the U.S.

Under are prominent anti-trans overall health care curbs in the 2023 legislative cycle.

Anti-trans overall health care bills that have been enacted

Arkansas: SB 199 tends to make it much easier to sue overall health providers who supply gender-affirming care to a minor, efficiently bringing back the state’s blocked ban.

Mississippi: HB 1125 states that overall health providers can’t supply gender-affirming surgeries, puberty blockers or hormone therapy to trans youth beneath 18. If a provider violates the law, they could drop their license and face civil lawsuits.

South Dakota: Beneath HB 1080, a overall health care provider can’t supply gender-affirming care “for the goal of attempting to alter the look of, or to validate a minor’s perception of, the minor’s sex.”

• A health-related provider dangers drop their license, as properly as danger civil action, if they supply this kind of automobile to trans youth.

Tennessee: SB 1 says that a overall health provider can’t “carry out or supply to carry out” any sort of gender-affirming care to trans minors. Undertaking so puts a provider at danger of lawsuits from the minor, their guardian or the state lawyer basic.

Utah: SB 16 especially prohibits overall health care providers in the state from performing gender-affirming surgeries on trans youth and areas an indefinite moratorium on their access to hormone therapy and puberty blockers.

Go deeper: Axios Explains: Gender-affirming care in the U.S.