Tennessee’s GOP-controlled legislature passed legislation criminalizing adults who help minors receive transgender medical procedures without parental consent.

The bill now heads to Gov. Bill Lee’s desk for his signature.

According to the Associated Press, the law would be the first of its kind.

From the Associated Press:

The bill mirrors almost the same language from a so-called anti-abortion trafficking proposal Tennessee Republican lawmakers approved just a day prior. In that version, supporters are hoping to stop adults from helping young people obtain abortions without permission from their parents or guardians.

Lee, a Republican, hasn’t publicly commented on either bill, but supporters are confident he will sign them into law. Lee eagerly approved a sweeping abortion ban and a ban on gender-affirming care for children. He has also never issued a veto during his time as governor.

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While the Republican supermajority touted the proposed statutes as necessary to protect parental rights, critics warned about the possible broad application. Violations could range from talking to an adolescent about a website on where to find care to helping that young person travel to another state with looser restrictions on gender-affirming care services.

“Currently, Idaho is the only other state in the U.S. that has a law to crack down on adults who help facilitate abortions for minors. But Tennessee could become the first that applies penalties to adults relating specifically to gender-transition procedures and treatments,” Fox News noted.

Per Fox News:

Last week, the state’s senate passed its version of the bill before sending it to the House for approval.

The law would penalize any “adult who recruits, harbors, or transports an unemancipated minor” in Tennessee “for the purpose of receiving a prohibited medical procedure for the purpose of enabling the minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex or treating purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor’s sex and asserted identity, regardless of where the medical procedure is to be procured,” and classify the crime as a felony.

 

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