ATLANTA — The Georgia Senate gave final approval to legislation Tuesday that would ban most forms of gender-affirming health care for transgender minors, sending the amended bill to Gov. Brian Kemp's desk.
The state Senate voted 31-21 in favor of the measure.
The bill would prevent hospitals and related facilities from providing gender reassignment surgery, any surgical procedures designed to alter primary or secondary sexual characteristics, and hormone replacement therapy to people younger than 18 years old in treating gender dysphoria — feelings that biological sex and gender identity are mismatched.
RELATED: Georgia House passes ban on most forms of gender-affirming health care for transgender minors
SB 140 includes exemptions for people with a medically verifiable disorder of sex development or those who need treatments for other medical conditions. Minors who are receiving hormone therapy treatment before July 1 would be allowed to continue.
The use of puberty blockers would still be allowed under the proposed law.
The bill returned to the Senate after House lawmakers removed language that protected physicians from being held criminally or civilly liable under the proposed law.
Carden Summers, R-Cordele, is the bill's author. The Republican said during brief remarks before Tuesday's vote that the bill protects Georgia's children. Carden was one of 22 Republican senators to sponsor the bill.
Several Democrats spoke in opposition to the proposed legislation. They spoke for more than an hour and warned the bill would negatively affect the mental health of transgender children and their families.
Kim Jackson, a Stone Mountain Democrat, said the legislation bullies "children in order to score political points."
"Kids will die," said Sen. Josh McLaurin, D-Sandy Springs. "Kids will commit suicide. Kids will feel that they're not being heard."
A spokesperson for Kemp told 11Alive that the governor's office would review the bill. There is no timeframe for the bill's possible signing.
Several organizations, including the Southern Poverty Law Center and Georgia Equality, condemned SB140's passage. The ACLU of Georgia said in a statement that it would sue the state of Georgia if Kemp signed the legislation into law.
“The Georgia Legislature has once again chosen to place politics before patient care. The politicians who passed SB 140 are interfering with the rights of Georgia parents to get life-saving medical treatment for their children and preventing physicians from properly caring for their patients,” Cory Isaacson, ACLU of Georgia's legal director, said in a statement. “The ACLU of Georgia and our partners will now consider all available legal options in order to protect the rights of parents, young people, and medical providers in our state.”
Georgia is joining a wave of other states that are attempting to limit forms of gender-affirming care.
Four states — Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah — signed restrictions into law this year. Roughly two dozens other states are considering bans or limitations, according to data from the American Civil Liberties Union.
Laws limiting gender-affirming care in Alabama and Arkansas were blocked by federal courts.