Transgender adults brace for treatment cutoffs in Missouri
Earlier DU thread: Gender-Affirming Care for Adults Is Now Basically Banned in Missouri
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Source: Associated Press
Transgender adults brace for treatment cutoffs in Missouri
By HANNAH SCHOENBAUM and DAVID A. LIEB
April 14, 2023
Ellie Bridgman spent her Thursday night shift at a local gas station in Union, Missouri, planning for the day she’ll lose access to gender-affirming treatments the transgender and nonbinary 23-year-old credits with making “life worth living.”
A first-of-its-kind emergency rule introduced this week by Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey will impose numerous restrictions on both adults and children before they can receive puberty-blocking drugs, hormones or surgeries “for the purpose of transitioning gender.”
Transgender rights advocates have vowed to challenge the rule in court before it takes effect April 27. But promises of swift legal action have done little to ease the worries of trans Missourians like Bridgman who say it may be time to flee the state.
Before gender-affirming medical treatments can be provided by physicians, the regulation requires people to have experienced an “intense pattern” of documented gender dysphoria for three years and to have received at least 15 hourly sessions with a therapist over at least 18 months. Patients also would first have to be screened for autism and “social media addiction,” and any psychiatric symptoms from mental health issues would have to be treated and resolved.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/missouri-transgender-health-care-andrew-baily-65c388ae85f610a2a885e2dff486bfe8