by Bronson Winslow
A Republican senator introduced a bill Wednesday aimed at blocking health care providers from administering or recommending medical transitions to patients under age 26.
The legislation, pre-filed ahead of Oklahoma’s 59 legislature, would ban gender transition procedures including puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries, while also imposing felony conviction and revocation of medical license, should the law be broken, according to the legislation. The legislation would also ban public funding from being used to fund any services related to gender transitions for people under 26.
The bill, to be known as the Millstone Act of 2023 was introduced by Oklahoma Republican state Sen. David Bullard, and is a reference to Bible verse Matthew 18:6, according to The Hill.
“If anyone causes one of these little ones–those who believe in me–to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea,” the verse reads.
The reference follows conservative pastor Jackson Lahmeyer who pledged to introduce his own “Millstone Act” that would focus on blocking funding from “any school district in America that teaches critical race theory or woke sexuality,” according to The Hill.
"Lawmakers [in Oklahoma] have also brought a bill that would ban physicians from administering any gender-affirming care to transgender adults who are under 26 years old."
Be sure to read @i_oriion on the legislators pushing anti-trans bills this yearhttps://t.co/tNwB1KEEVJ
— Shefali Luthra (@shefalil) January 5, 2023
Last year, Bullard authored an act, Bill 615, that was signed into law and prohibited transgender students from using school restrooms or locker rooms based on their own gender identity, according to The Hill. In turn, The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), representing three transgender students, filed a lawsuit against the bill.
In December, another bill blocking medical transitions was introduced by Republican state Rep. Jim Olsen, according to the legislation. The bill imposes up to a decade in prison and a fine of $100,000 on any physician who provides “gender transition procedures” to anyone under 21.
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Bronson Winslow is a reporter at The Daily Caller News Foundation.
Photo “Surgery” by Anna Shvets.
