By Vanguard Staff
WASHINGTON — The American Civil Liberties Union is urging members of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote against legislation sponsored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., that would criminalize the provision of gender-affirming medical care for transgender people under the age of 18.
In a statement released Dec. 11, the ACLU said Greene’s bill would subject medical providers to up to 10 years in federal prison for providing what the organization describes as medically necessary care for transgender youth. The ACLU characterized the proposal as the most extreme anti-transgender legislation ever considered by Congress, noting that gender-affirming care is supported by major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The ACLU also said the bill would criminalize care for transgender youth while explicitly permitting non-consensual surgical procedures on intersex infants and children.
Greene announced on social media that House Republican leadership agreed to bring the bill to the floor as part of a procedural deal tied to unrelated legislation. “I made a deal and changed my NO vote on the rule to a Yes in exchange for a floor vote next week on my bill that is one of President Trump’s key campaign promises and executive orders,” Greene wrote. She added that House Majority Leader Steve Scalise “has promised me that my bill Protect Children’s Innocence Act, H.R. 3492, will be brought to the floor for a vote next Wednesday, Dec 17th.”
In the same post, Greene claimed the bill “would make it a class c felony to trans a child under 18,” and asserted that “every Republican campaigned to protect kids from the trans agenda.”
The ACLU warned that the legislation would have sweeping consequences for families and medical professionals nationwide. “This extreme bill puts the threat of prosecution between hundreds of thousands of families and their doctors and would put doctors behind bars for exercising their best medical judgment,” said Mike Zamore, the ACLU’s national director of policy and government affairs. “Passing this bill would be a grave escalation of an already severe effort to not only push transgender people out of public life but also allow the state to control our bodies and our lives further.”
Zamore said families with transgender youth have already left the United States out of fear that similar proposals could become law. “Abortion bans have already shown us the deadly consequences of putting baseless politics into our doctors’ offices,” he said. “Every member of Congress who believes that health care decisions should stay between families and their doctors should vote no and vigorously oppose this bill’s passage.”
The ACLU said the outcome of the vote could have implications well beyond transgender health care. “The fundamental equality of transgender people and our families is at stake now, but the implications of criminalizing health care could be far-reaching for everyone,” Zamore said.
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