New South Dakota bill would prohibit gender reassignment surgery

South Dakota House Bill 1057 would ban gender reassignment surgery on minors and prohibit doctors from prescribing medications used to stop puberty.

Introduced January 14, the bill would make it a felony for medical providers to perform gender-transition operations or give hormone therapy to help minors change their gender.

The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota has already publicly opposed this bill.

A local LGBTQ activist for more than 40 years said allies need to speak up.

"My heart goes out to transgender families that are dealing with this, I've had the amazing experience of sitting with them and talking with them, especially the parents about their children, they are so concerned about the discrimination, they're concerned about the suicide rate, this is without any of these bills," said Nancy Rosenbraun, LGBTQ activist.

Representative Fred Deutsch who sponsored House Bill 1057 said he considers the bill a "pause button."

"We protect our children in so many ways, they can't smoke, they can't drink, they can't gamble, etc because we don't believe they're mature enough to make those decisions, I believe a child is not mature enough to make decisions about sterilization and mutilation that will affect them for the remainder of their lives," said Rep. Fred Deutsch, (R) South Dakota.

After working on this bill for about nine months, Deutsch said he had input from about 15 different physicians.

The House State Affairs committee will have a hearing for this bill next Wednesday.