ATLANTA — The Georgia Senate passed legislation Monday night that would bar transgender youth from receiving forms of gender-affirming healthcare.
Senators voted 33 - 22 in favor of SB 140, which prevents 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 under 18 years old.
Unlike other legislation proposed this session, SB140 doesn't ban puberty blocking medication. The bill includes exceptions for people who have a medically verifiable disorder of sex development or need the treatments for other medical conditions.
"Under the principle of 'do no harm,' taking a wait-and-see approach to minors with gender dysphoria, providing counseling, and allowing the child time to mature and develop his or her own identity is preferable to causing the child permanent physical damage," a portion of the bill reads.
The bill was co-sponsored by 22 Republicans. Sen. Carden Summers (R-Cordele) is the bill's author.
"I want to make one thing perfectly clear," Carden said as he introduced the bill Monday. "I'm not trying to harm anybody out there or cause anybody any issues whatsoever."
Ahead of Monday's vote, several groups including Georgia Equality and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Georgia, warned that the bill was harmful. Democratic Sen. Sally Harrell, the mother of a transgender child, spoke in opposition to the legislation on the Senate floor.
"We cannot take away treatment for these kids without having something else in place," she said. "And we don't have anything else in place."
Critics of the bill were huddled outside the Senate chambers for most of the day and spoke with 11Alive about the legislation's detrimental effects.
"I think the most troubling thing about this bill it is creates this second-class citizenship for trans kids," said Frank Cade, a transgender man, hours before the vote. "I hope they start to understand that it is not the place of the legislature to make medical decisions."
The bill now heads to the Georgia House of Representatives for approval.
This is a breaking story and will be updated.