West Virginia House OKs bill doctors say would eliminate care for most at-risk transgender youth

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — West Virginia’s Republican-controlled House of Delegates passed a bill on Wednesday that doctors treating transgender youth in the state say would prevent the prescription of certain medical interventions like hormone therapy to patients at risk for self-harm or suicide.

The proposal, which now heads to the Senate, was greenlit after more than 500 medical professionals and students signed a letter opposing it, expressing concern it would cause young patients preventable harm and put their lives at risk.

House Republicans said such fears are overblown and that the bill is less restrictive than current law. But the state’s only LGBTQ+ advocacy organization and doctors treating transgender youth in West Virginia said that’s not true.

“If this bill becomes law, it will take away the only treatment that has been shown to help a small, but very vulnerable group of children,” said Dr. Kate Waldeck, a pediatric critical care physician at Hoops Family Children’s Hospital in the state’s second-largest city of Huntington. Waldeck runs a monthly clinic for transgender youth — one of only a few existing care options in the state.

<bsp-list-loadmore data-module="" class=«PageListStandardB» data-gtm-region=«READ MORE» data-gtm-topic=«No Value» data-show-loadmore=«true» data-gtm-modulestyle=«List B»> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> READ MORE </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> West Virginia Senate OKs bill requiring schools to show anti-abortion group fetal development video </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline custom-headline=«div»> Kansas State lets 25-point lead slip away before beating West Virginia 94-90 in overtime </bsp-custom-headline> <bsp-custom-headline