Democrats delay vote on trans health care; Missouri Senate adjourns for spring break

JEFFERSON CITY — Democrats, through a filibuster, held off a vote Wednesday on a plan to restrict transgender health care for minors, with the Republican majority eventually moving to adjourn and leave for spring break.

Wednesday evening, Senate Majority Leader Cindy O’Laughlin, R-Shelbina, moved that the Senate adjourn and said no regular business would occur until Monday, March 20.

The adjournment represented a temporary win for Democrats, who also dodged use of a rare parliamentary manuever by Republicans to cut off debate and force a vote on the controversial measure.

But, the Republicans who control the chamber could bring up the restrictions, which have become a priority for many right-wing commentators, activists and elected officials, after the annual spring break. The legislative session ends May 12.

People are also reading…

The proposal, by Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, would block gender-affirming care for transgender minors, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries.

With the Senate stuck on the transgender plan for a second day, at 1:18 p.m., Sen. Denny Hoskins, R-Warrensburg, said in a tweet that if Democrats continued to filibuster, “the only recourse we have is to consider moving” to force a vote through the rare parliamentary manuever.

Democrats were holding the floor at about 4:45 p.m. when Moon asked that action on the bill be postponed. The Senate then went into recess, coming back shortly after 6:15 p.m. to adjourn. 

If the bill is signed into law, Missouri would join a wave of other GOP-led states to approve such restrictions amid an increasing focus by right-wing activists, commentators and elected officials on transgender people as a political issue. 

“This is real life. We’re making medical decisions on kids that this body doesn’t understand,” said Sen. Greg Razer, a Kansas City Democrat and only openly gay member of the Senate.

Hoskins said adults should be able to transition, “but for those kids and children who are not of legal age yet — they can’t vote, they can’t buy a six-pack of beer — they’re too young to be making these life-altering decisions for themselves.”

The latest version of Moon’s legislation, which had yet to be adopted as of Wednesday evening, would prohibit physicians and other health care providers from knowingly providing “gender transition procedures” to individuals younger than 18.

Providers also wouldn’t be allowed to knowingly refer minors to other clinics that provide gender-affirming care without risking disciplinary action from a state licensing entity or disciplinary review board.

Under the bill’s definition, “gender transition procedures” wouldn’t include care for those “born with a medically verifiable disorder of sex development” including individuals with “irresolvably ambiguous” genitalia.

It also exempts services offered when someone is otherwise diagnosed with a sex development disorder and the physician determines “the individual does not have normal sex chromosome structure, sex steroid hormone production, or sex steroid hormone action,” according to the bill.

Treatment of infections, diseases, injuries or disorders caused or exacerabated by past “gender transition procedures” would also be permitted, along with procedures undertaken if “the individual suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the individual in imminent danger of death or impairment of a major bodily function unless surgery is performed.”

The legislation is Senate Bill 49.

Stay up-to-date on the latest in local and national government and political topics with our newsletter.