Global Courant 2023-05-17 06:47:25
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri officials on Tuesday abruptly ended an unusual emergency rule proposed by the Republican attorney general that would limit transgender care for minors and some adults.
The move was announced without explanation on the Missouri Secretary of State’s website, which said, “This emergency rule ended May 16, 2023.”
Under Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s rule, adults and children would have to undergo more than a year of therapy and meet other requirements before they can receive sex-affirming treatments, such as puberty blockers, hormones and surgery.
Bailey said in a statement Tuesday night that his office was “in the lurch” until the GOP-controlled legislature decided to address the issue.
“The General Assembly has now filled that gap with a statute,” he said. “I am proud to have shed light on the experimental nature of these procedures and will continue to do everything in my power to make Missouri the safest state in the country for children.”
House Minority Leader Crystal Quade, D-Springfield, said in a statement that Missouri should not have an attorney general “prosecuting innocent Missourians for political gain.”
“Andrew Bailey has grossly exceeded his legal authority, and everyone knows it,” she said. “So it is not surprising that he withdrew his unconstitutional rule, knowing that another embarrassing defeat in court was inevitable.”
Bailey had attempted to implement the rule on April 27. But Missouri’s ACLU filed a lawsuit to stop it, arguing that Bailey circumvented the legislature and lacked the authority to regulate health care through Missouri’s consumer protection law.
St. Louis County Judge Ellen Ribaudo later granted a temporary restraining order and scheduled a July 20 hearing.
The law’s termination comes less than a week after the Missouri legislature passed a ban on starting care for minors. Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican, who threatened to call a special session if lawmakers did not pass that bill and another bill banning transgender girls and women from playing on female school sports teams, is expected to sign into law.
Bailey’s proposed rule would require people to have experienced an “intense pattern” of documented gender dysphoria for three years and had at least 15 hourly sessions with a therapist for at least 18 months before they could receive treatment. Potential patients should also be screened for autism, and all psychiatric symptoms of mental health problems should be treated and resolved.
Legal experts and transgender advocates have said the rule would have made Missouri the first state in the country to restrict gender-affirming care for adults and the first to enact such restrictions through emergency rules rather than a new law.
Bailey said he proposed the rule to protect minors from what he called experimental medical treatments, even though puberty blockers and sex hormones have been prescribed for decades and the rule would also apply to adults.
The attorney general’s office has said there are 12,400 Missouri residents who identify as transgender. The office estimates that 600 to 700 Missouri residents will begin treatment in the next year.
Bailey issued the restrictions after he launched an investigation in February into Washington University’s transgender center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital after a former employee alleged the center provided children with gender-affirming care without informed consent, insufficiently individualized case assessment and enveloping mental health services .
The university’s internal review found the allegations to be unfounded.
