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- Sen. JD Vance introduced a bill to criminalize providing certain treatments to transgender minors.
- He has defended the sweeping bill, saying it's a "long way from becoming law."
- Other Republican senators told Insider that they're open to the idea as well.
Sen. JD Vance on Tuesday introduced a sweeping bill that would make it a federal crime to provide certain medical treatments to transgender people under the age of 18.
"I think the more that we learn about so-called 'gender affirming care,' the more that we learn that the medical science is being way outpaced by the way that patients are actually being treated," Vance told Insider at the Capitol on Thursday.
But Vance isn't merely advocating for greater caution and study of the procedures, like some European countries — his legislation would go much further, and would notably make it harder for transgender adults to receive gender-affirming care as well.
Under the Ohio Republican's "Protect Children's Innocence Act" — the Senate version of a bill first introduced last year by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia — doctors would face up to 12 years in prison for performing surgeries or puberty-blocking hormones for the purpose of a gender transition.
It also aims to block the use of taxpayer funds for gender-affirming care — which means preventing federally-operated facilities from performing procedures, and blocking several health plans that receive federal funds from covering the costs of gender-affirming care.
And it would forbid institutions of higher education from offering any instruction on such procedures, foreclosing the ability for more doctors to receive the training necessary to perform them.
Asked about potentially harmful effects on transgender people who are already receiving care, Vance conceded that the bill is largely a messaging device for now.
"The bill is a very long way from becoming law," said Vance. "We would do a lot to figure out how it would affect people, and when it would apply. This is not the sort of thing that's going to go into effect tomorrow."
And he disputed the notion that adults would be significantly affected by the bill.
"Look, I think certainly the goal is to prevent taxpayer funding of this stuff," said Vance. "But it doesn't have any effect on the capacity of people to receive this care if they're adults. The goal is not to touch consenting adults."
The nationalization of a state-level trend
The bill's arrival in the Senate signals the nationalization of a conservative backlash that's picked up steam at the state level in recent years, as Semafor's Joseph Zeballos-Roig reported this week.
Twenty states, mostly those controlled by Republicans, have passed laws or enacted policies banning gender-affirming care for individuals under 18, according to the Human Rights Campaign, affecting more than 30% of transgender youth.
While the bill has the support of 46 mostly hard-right House Republicans, Vance just has one official co-sponsor in the Senate: Sen. Tommy Tuberville of Alabama.
But that doesn't mean that other Republicans aren't open to it.
"We shouldn't be doing this to children in America," said Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who stressed that he had yet to study the specifics of Vance's bill. "Once people turn 18, obviously, those options are in the domain. I mean, I don't want taxpayers to pay for those options. But whether they agree with it or not, we're a free country."
"I'm quite honestly shocked that they are performing sex change operations on minors," said Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. "We need to be doing something about it, because a lot of things are being done to children who don't have the capability to decide these things for themselves."
Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, who's previously introduced a bill to block federal funding for gender transitions performed on individuals under the age of 18, said he had yet to study Vance's bill but that it "mostly sounds fine to me."
Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas also said he had yet to study the bill, though he's previously railed to Insider about "young children who have their genitals mutilated."