MO lawmakers to hear bill indefinitely extending ban on gender affirming care for minors

With one full week under their belts, Missouri lawmakers will return to Jefferson City on Tuesday to continue work on new legislation.

Since Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day, there was no session, meaning that legislators will have less time to get work done this week.

The week is jam-packed with committee meetings, some of which will follow up on education bills by Sen. Andrew Koenig and a child care tax credit bill from Rep. Brenda Shields.

One hearing to watch this week will be Wednesday’s House Emerging Issues Committee, which plans to hear legislation removing the expiration date on the SAFE Act, which banned transgender youth from receiving gender transition treatment last year.

Under another bill to be heard by the committee, medical providers would be guaranteed in statute the right to refuse to participate in medical treatments aimed at surgically changing a person’s gender.

Another bill on the schedule would create statutory definitions for terms such as boy, father, female, girl, male, man, mother, sex and woman, each based upon the reproductive systems that a person possesses at birth.

Building upon that, at least four bills look to prevent people who do not share the same biological gender at birth from being required to share bathrooms, locker rooms and shower rooms. While most of the bills focus on regulating these areas in public schools, one extends these rules to workplaces.

During the 2023 legislative session, several lawmakers took aim at regulating gender transition treatments for children, resulting in the passage of the aforementioned SAFE Act. Sen. Mike Moon, R-Ash Grove, took point on this legislation, sponsoring the bill that banned minors’ access to puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones or gender-affirming surgeries.

Although the SAFE Act is in place for the next four years, some lawmakers think last year’s legislation didn’t go far enough. Bills in both the House and Senate seek to extend the ban indefinitely.

However, in remarks following the end of the first week of the 2024 legislative session, Senate President Pro Tem Calen Rowden didn’t see it as an immediate priority for this year.

“We have a four-year window to do that, so it will still be in effect, and I don't have any real sense of urgency that has to be done this year,” Rowden said.

Senate Minority Floor Leader John Rizzo, D-Independence, called the push to end the expiration date “distraction politics” by conservative legislators.

“They continue to throw whoever it is under the bus that will make them feel good to their base,” Rizzo said. “We’re talking at the end of the day, 100 people, 200 people in the state.”

Rizzo feels there are higher priorities to accomplish this session, such as renewing the Federal Reimbursement Allowance, which brings over $4 billion of federal money to the state to supplement Medicaid.

However, members of the newly formed Freedom Caucus have made it one of their legislative priorities this year. They rankle at the fact that the expiration date was enacted as part of a compromise with Democrats in order to pass the legislation last year.

“We did not want a four-year sunset on that,” said Sen. Denny Hoskins, a member of the newly formed caucus. “But, unfortunately, our Senate leadership negotiated that with the Democrats because they would rather vote with the Democrats and appease them than the own members of their party who are trying to stay and abide by the Missouri Republican Party platform.”

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The Freedom Caucus will have their hands full with other legislative priorities this session, including the desire to revamp the initiative petition process, cut taxes, enact school choice legislation and a parent’s bill of rights. However, if there is a chance to do so, these conservative lawmakers won’t let it pass them by.

"Protecting kids at all cost, that's paramount to the educational choice, protecting kids, protecting their well-being. It falls into that,” said Sen. Rick Brattin, chair of the Freedom Caucus. “I don't think a sunset was good policymaking on that, and so if there's a capability to be able to do that, and force that issue, we will absolutely do that at all cost.”

House Speaker Dean Plocher said he was “glad to get that done” last year, in reference to the SAFE Act. He did not stress removing the expiration date as one of his top priorities for 2024.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Missouri House committee to hear bills targeting transgender community