South Dakota Republicans Introduce Ban on Medical Sex Changes for Children

As I detailed in a long investigative piece earlier this month, South Dakota — one of the most conservative states in the nation — has been stymied in its attempts to combat gender ideology by the influence of a major Sioux Falls–based health-care company, Sanford Health. Despite the conservatism of the state’s voter base, the South Dakota GOP’s close relationship to Sanford — which profits from sex-change drugs and surgeries — has led the Republican-supermajority legislature to kill dozens of conservative efforts to curb the influence of the transgender movement in the state, including various bills that have passed in numerous other red states.

One of those bills, a 2020 ban on puberty blockers and sex-change surgeries for children, died in the state senate’s health and human services committee — with the help of heavy Sanford lobbying. Various other legislative efforts to that end have failed under similar circumstances. “Similar bills were filed and failed in past legislative sessions, including HB 1205 in 2019, HB 1057, SB 93 and SB 109 in 2020, and HB 1247 in 2021,” the Argus Leader reported recently.

But thankfully, there are still some serious conservatives in the state legislature — and in light of the recent burst of attention surrounding the influence of the transgender lobby in the state, there now appears to be some momentum for their cause. Yesterday, a coalition of South Dakota Republicans introduced their “Help Not Harm” bill in a press conference at Pierre:

The bill (HB 1080) would “ban cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and surgical castration of gender confused children in South Dakota,” according to co-sponsor Fred Deutsch. In addition, the South Dakota Searchlight reported, “The legislation would also create a pathway for patients to collect damages if they are harmed during any of those procedures, and would subject doctors to a loss of licensure if they engage in the banned practices.”

Jon Hansen, a young Republican in the state legislature whom I spoke to for my original piece, is one of the serious social conservatives in the South Dakota GOP. “What Sanford and the trans activists are doing to these young children in South Dakota is irresponsible and immoral,” he told me when I reached out to ask about his bill this morning. “Children suffering from gender dysphoria need mental health care, not permanent bodily mutilation. With the passage of the Help Not Harm Act, House Bill 1080, we will put an end to barbaric gender mutilation in South Dakota and provide kids with the mental health care that they truly need.”

Even if it does clear the house, the “Help Not Harm” legislation will still have to clear the senate health and human services committee — the legislative body, staffed by numerous Sanford-aligned Republicans, where many of these bills have died in the past. But one hopes the new scrutiny might motivate those legislators to think differently about their obligations in this area. In any event, conservatives everywhere should be paying attention.