Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, vetoed legislation Friday that would have banned gender-transition care for minors that included prescribing puberty-blockers, hormone treatment, and surgeries, the Associated Press reported.
"This bill is entitled the 'Stop Harming Our Kids Act,' which is ironic because that is precisely what it does. This bill denies health care to a very small, unique, and vulnerable group of children," Edwards wrote in a letter explaining his veto. "It forces children currently stabilized on medication to treat a legitimate health care diagnosis to stop taking it. It threatens the professional licensure of the limited number of specialists who treat the health care needs of these children. It takes away parental rights to work with a physician to make important health care decisions for children experiencing a gender crisis that could quite literally save their lives. And, without doubt, it is part of a targeted assault on children that the bill itself deems not 'normal.'"
The vetoes come as Edwards is in his last six months in office due to the state's limit on consecutive terms, the AP reported.
The GOP-led Legislature sent a series of bills to Edwards that would have not only limited gender transition procedures and treatments for minors, but also would have prohibited K-12 public school employees from discussing sexual identity or gender in the classrooms, all of which Edwards vetoed, the report said.
The Legislature could reconvene in a special August session to try to muster a two-thirds majority in both the state House and Senate to override the vetoes, the report said.
Because Republicans hold a two-thirds majority in both chambers, such a special session, which would be just the third since 1974, appears to be likely, the AP reported.
Louisiana is one of 20 states, including three bordering states, to pass legislation restricting gender-transition care for minors; many face court challenges.
The report said a federal judge recently struck down a similar ban in Arkansas as unconstitutional, with similar rulings coming against laws in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee.
Republicans tout these laws as protections for children, while opponents say the legislation harms vulnerable children dealing with gender issues by creating more stress, depression, and suicidal thoughts.
The gender-transition care prohibited in the bill has been available in the United States for more than a decade and has been recommended by major medical associations, according to the report.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.