NC Family Staff | May 2, 2023 | SHARE: 
The North Carolina House is considering a bill that would prohibit gender transition surgeries on minors. HB 808—Surgical Gender Transition/Minors would make it “unlawful for any physician or other health care provider to provide surgical gender transition procedures to any individual under 18 years of age,” with limited exceptions. The bill would also prohibit health care providers, including physicians, from referring minors to other providers for “surgical gender transition procedures” as defined by the legislation. HB 808 was approved by the House Health Committee on Tuesday morning and has been re-referred to the House Rules Committee.
NC Family recognizes that children suffering with gender dysphoria and identity issues need our compassion and understanding. We support HB 808, because the procedures currently being used—including experimental puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones and surgeries to remove healthy body parts—come with a myriad of negative side effects including irreversible body changes and sterility. In fact, the American College of Pediatricians warns that hormone treatment can lead to physical harms, as well as mental illness and sterility. Sadly, these outcomes are often permanent.
The original version of HB 808 also would have prohibited the administration of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors, but those provisions were removed from the bill during consideration by the House Health Committee. NC Family will be working with state lawmakers and other advocates to restore these important provisions to the bill as it progresses through the legislature.
