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Missouri republican lawmakers working on legislation to ban gender affirming care for minors

Missouri’s Republican lawmakers are working to pass the Save Adolescents from Experimentation, or SAFE Act, which would make it illegal for health care providers to perform gender transition procedures to minors.

On Wednesday, republican lawmakers held a press conference to express their support of the SAFE Act and its ties to an ongoing investigation at the Washington University Transgender Center.

Republican Senator Denny Hoskins from Warrensburg is just one of the SAFE Act sponsors who questions the legality of allowing minors to undergo gender transition surgery.

“I don’t believe that kids 18 years old and under have the capacity to make these life altering decisions.”

Movement on this bill comes just a week after whistleblower Jamie Reed, a former case manager at the Washington University Transgender Center, filed an affidavit claiming that the Center provides gender affirming care without considering children’s mental health needs.

Republican Senator Mike Moon from Ash Grove said that he does not support giving Washington University more funding for child medical care until the Center stops gender affirming procedures.

“Washington U is perpetrating evil on children and we’re paying for it, so we’ve got to stop it.”

The republican lawmakers said that they had not talked to anyone who has de-transitioned in the state of Missouri.

Sarah Petrowich studies cross platform editing and producing within journalism, as well as political science at the University of Missouri - Columbia.