Indiana bans transgender youth treatments

Indiana Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb has signed legislation barring minors from receiving any gender-related treatments such as surgeries or hormone treatments.

The law will take effect July 1 and grant transgender minors until the end of 2023 to stop taking the forbidden medications, Politico reported. The governor signed the legislation on Wednesday, making Indiana at least the 13th state to bar gender treatments for minors.

Among the others are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota, and West Virginia. All have enacted either laws or state policies barring gender treatments for those under the age of 18. 

At least 20 other states are mulling comparable restrictions.

The bill also specifically bans gender-transition surgeries, but Indiana hospital representatives have insisted that doctors currently do not perform such surgeries on minors or grant them referrals, per the outlet.

Holcomb's signing of the legislation comes the same week that Idaho, one of the states that has also banned such treatments, enacted a new law to ban so-called "abortion-trafficking," in which an individual aids a minor in securing an abortion out of state without parental consent.

The matter of transgender treatments for minors also coincides with a debate on the participation of transgender individuals in sports in line with their gender identities rather than biological sex. Twenty states have enacted measures requiring individuals to participate in sports in line with their sex, the Movement Advancing Project states.

The Supreme Court on Thursday determined that a transgender individual may remain on a West Virginia women's sports team while the judiciary handles a challenge to that state's ban.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.