Oklahoma lawmaker wants to ban surgery for some trans adults

A top Republican in the Oklahoma Senate wants to ban all gender reassignment surgeries for people under 26 years old.

Calling it "a permanent solution to a temporary problem," state Sen. David Bullard, R-Durant, claimed that most medical intervention for transgender people violates the Hippocratic Oath, which requires doctors to do no harm.

"We want to make sure that if we're going to do a procedure like this that is irreversible, then we want to make sure an individual is at their full maturity when it comes to cognitive development," said Bullard, who was recently picked by his GOP colleagues to serve as Senate Republican Caucus vice-chair during the 2023 session.

Senate Bill 129 prohibits public funds, has some exceptions

Senate Bill 129 makes it illegal for doctors to provide "gender transition procedures" to anyone younger than 26. The bill includes exceptions for individuals with ambiguous biological characteristics, those with abnormal hormone development, people who have been injured by a previous gender transition surgery, or those in imminent danger of death or impairment because of a physical disorder, injury or illness.

The bill also prohibits direct or indirect use of public funds for gender transition procedures.

Oklahomans legally become adults at 18, and the law places few age-based restrictions after this point. So why 26 years old?

"At the age of 18, you can vote, but a vote is not a permanent change in your body that cannot be reversed," Bullard told The Oklahoman. "At the age of 21 you can drink, but at the end of the day if you decide to put the alcohol down, you can put the alcohol down. But with this surgery, there is no going back. We just want to make sure that the brain is fully developed before we allow this kind of surgery, permanent thing to happen."

Bullard said he didn't speak with any transgender individuals while crafting his legislation, but said he would be happy to have that conversation.

American Medical Association supports 'access to evidence-based health care'

The American Medical Association, a professional organization that represents physicians across the country, already has taken a stance on the availability of gender-affirming care for individuals. On the group's website, the AMA said it "supports everyone’s access to quality evidence-based health care regardless of gender or sexual orientation."

In recent years, conservative politicians have launched several political attacks on transgender people, their supporters and medical professionals who perform both surgery and counseling. Gov. Kevin Stitt last year signed the "Save Womens Sports" Act, which prevents transgender women and girls from competing on women’s high school and college sports teams.

Other anti-trans bills that became law include one that prohibits the state from issuing a nonbinary birth certificate and another that requires Oklahoma students to use the school restroom that matches their sex assigned at birth. Lawmakers also forced a gender-affirming care center at OU Health's Oklahoma Children's Hospital to shut its doors.

At the time, Stitt called on lawmakers to enact during the 2023 legislative session a statewide ban on "irreversible gender transition surgeries and hormone therapies on minors."

As lawmakers considered legislation to strip funding from the Oklahoma Children's Hospital if it continued providing this care to minors, which came during a special session devoted to pandemic funding in September, the Oklahoma State Medical Association issued a statement:

"It’s disturbing that some legislators have chosen to hijack what should be a straightforward special session focused on COVID relief funding to advance a political agenda," the medical association said.

Bullard said the Oklahoma Legislature makes many decisions about medical procedures based on whether a practice could harm an individual.

"The bill does not stop them from existing in any form. But it is a protectionary measure that we're looking at to make sure that people aren't being taken advantage of who are suffering from gender dysphoria and that confusion, and so it's a protectionary measure as much as anything."

When asked whether he believes that people who undergo gender reassignment surgery can live a happy, healthy life, Bullard replied that it was an irrelevant question.

"I think that some can. Many cannot," he said.