Rokita Addresses Bill Banning Medical Care For Transgender Youth At GOP Fish Fry
Rokita Addresses Bill Banning Medical Care For Transgender Youth At GOP Fish Fry
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David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Rokita Addresses Bill Banning Medical Care For Transgender Youth At GOP Fish FryIndiana Attorney General Todd Rokita made his views on the bill banning medical care ban for transgender youth perfectly clear Wednesday when he stopped by the Kosciusko County GOP fish fry.
Senate Bill 480 was signed by Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb Wednesday, after saying on Tuesday the bill was “clear as mud.” Within hours of Holcomb signing the bill, the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of four transgender minors whose health care would abruptly cease if the bill went into effect on July 1, according to Indiana Capital Chronicle. SB bans puberty blockers, hormone therapies and surgical interventions.
“I think this is like the abortion laws themselves. This is a very reasonable law. This is reflective of the vast majority of Hoosiers who believe that you shouldn’t be mutilating our children. You shouldn’t be forcing them to have puberty blockers that can make them infertile or trying to change their gender by physically mutilating their genitalia. This is a very reasonable bill, and now law, so I look forward to defending it,” Rokita stated.
What the law says, he said, is that the General Assembly, as representatives of the people, “actually care about our kids. It’s really the left that has a hatred for our children.” He said the compassionate thing to do is to make sure that kids are loved and their medical and psychological issues are addressed. “But the absolute last position, the last option, should be to change genitalia, or infuse puberty blockers, if an option at all. So that’s what we’re about here. It’s the left that doesn’t like kids. It’s the left’s ideology over the well-being of children.”
He said the “caring and compassionate” thing is what’s being done in SB 480.
On Holcomb calling the bill “clear as mud” Tuesday but then signing it Wednesday, Rokita said Holcomb did the right thing.
“In my statement, I said he made the right move, and that’s fine. He got to where he needed to get. I’m not sure what was going on in his mind, but I will tell you that Northeast Indiana legislators that I talked to just today didn’t think it was muddy. In fact, they didn’t see any mud in it at all. They thought what they did was very clear, and I agree with that, that it was very clear. Very straight-forward,” Rokita said.
There is an exception in SB 480, he pointed out.
“That exception is that if there’s a chromosomal issue, a physical issue with your chromosomes, that these therapies are not prohibited because there is a very strong and long scientific basis for using some of these therapies when you actually have a physical chromosomal issue - 46XX versus 46X&Y kind of thing.”
Asked about any documentation about how many children have gone through the procedures, Rokita said they are asking those questions right now of several hospitals around the state.
“I tried to be nice about it and just do it a little bit more informally, certainly in writing, and we asked a couple patients specific questions. We did not, unfortunately, get any answers. Except in testimony, I think regarding this bill, some of these clinics said that they actually don’t do the surgeries. Well, now, I’m going to subpoena that information and we’re going to know for sure what’s going on,” he said.
Rokita said they know the surgeries on minors is happening from whistleblowers in other states, so why would Indiana be any different especially since the same amount of money can be made here on them.
“We’re also hearing anecdotally in this state, from patients who now regret the procedures, that a lot of times it could be a referral made by an Indiana clinic or healthcare provider to another Indiana or out-of-state provider, so it’s also, this whistleblower tells us, the referrals that have to be looked at, too. So, we’ll be looking at all of that, too,” he said.
Rokita said he doesn’t think the bill makes it retroactive, it’s just as of when it goes into effect, but his office will be the one to enforce a lot of the law.
“I don’t think we’re going to necessarily look retroactively, but no decision has been made on that process,” he said.
First, however, he said the bill has to survive the preliminary injunction. “The ACLU - they haven’t yet but I know they will - try to have a court stop the law from taking effect so I think that will be the first fight,” Rokita said.
According to a news release Thursday from the ACLU, “The lawsuit, filed in federal court, alleges that Senate Bill 480 violates the U.S. Constitution on multiple fronts, including the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. In addition, the lawsuit claims that the law violates the federal requirements of the Medicaid Act and the Affordable Care Act, because it prohibits essential medical services that would otherwise be authorized and reimbursed by Medicaid.”
“This law would be devastating to trans youth and their families, causing them serious injuries and forcing those who can, to uproot their lives and leave the state to access the gender-affirming care they need,” said Ken Falk, ACLU of Indiana legal director. “Gender-affirming care is life-saving care for our clients, and they’re terrified of what will happen if this law is allowed to take effect. No child should be cut off from the medical care they need or denied their fundamental right to be themselves — but this law would do both. We’re suing to stop this cruel and unconstitutional law from taking effect and inflicting further harm on these children and their families.”
Under the new law, trans youth already receiving gender-affirming health care as of July 1 will be forced to lose access to such care after six months. Youth not receiving medical care by July 1 will be unable to begin receiving care in Indiana, according to the ACLU release.
Rokita said he doesn’t see SB 480 as anything but commonsense.
“I think that doing these procedures as a first option is actually child abuse. It’s irreversible,” he said. “I am glad that my parents, when I was a little boy, when I told them that I wanted to be a fireman, didn’t lock me in my house and start it on fire and see how I did. But that’s what is happening here.”
One of the questions Rokita said they’re asking the healthcare providers is what are they telling the parents that get the parents to sign the consent form for the procedures.
“I don’t know. My suspicion, and again based on whistleblowers in other stories, is that they are scaring parents to death that kid is going to commit suicide. And there’s no factual basis for that,” he said.
Rokita said more are likely to commit suicide after they get older and realize what a “terrible” decision the procedure was.
According to thetrevorproject.org, suicide is the second leading cause of death among young people aged 10-24 and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning youth are at significantly increased risk. LGBTQ youth are more than four times as likely to attempt suicide than their peers.
“But who’s to say that doing this irreversible thing solves that? I agree that they need help. It’s not a matter - but why do we as adults now all of a sudden come to the conclusion, ‘oh, you’re suicidal, let’s chop off your genitalia. That will solve it.’ No. Sure, these kids need love. Sure, these kids need help, of course. This is not the answer. And like everything else, there’s a lot of money behind this. There’s a lot of money driving this,” Rokita said.
