South Carolina governor signs ban on gender-affirming care for minors

Republican South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster signed a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors into law on Tuesday, making the state the 25th to create such a ban. 

The new law was passed by the state legislature earlier this month, and prohibits doctors from administering puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgeries to transgender minors. The law will go into full effect on January 31 for minors that already receive such treatments.

"I signed the Help Not Harm bill into law, which protects our state’s children from irreversible gender transition procedures and bans public funds from being used for them," McMaster wrote in a post to X. "I look forward to joining legislators and supporters at a ceremonial bill signing in the Upstate next week."

The measure also requires schools to notify parents if their child requests to use a different name or pronoun from the one they were assigned at birth. Groups that support LGBTQ rights are considering suing the state over the new law.

“Healthcare is a human right – and it breaks my heart to see lawmakers rip away life-affirming and often life-saving medical care from transgender youth in South Carolina. No one should be forced to leave their home state to access the care that they need and deserve,” Uplift Outreach Center Executive Director Raymond Velazquez said in a statement, per the Associated Press.

McMaster previously said he supports the new law because children should be saved from "irreversible errors."

“If they want to make those decisions later when they’re adults, then that’s a different story," the governor told WPDE-TV in January.