Advocates of a state bill protecting minors from gender transition surgeries are celebrating the Kansas legislature’s override of Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto.
“As elected lawmakers, we have a duty to protect children from harm,” Kansas Rep. Ron Bryce told Fox News Digital.
Kelly, a Democrat, vetoed the Help Not Harm Act, on Feb. 11.
The legislation mandates that state funds not be used “to promote gender transitioning, prohibiting healthcare providers from providing gender transition care to children whose gender identity is inconsistent with the child’s sex.”
It also allows legal action to be brought against physicians and medical care providers for pursuing gender transition surgeries for minors.
On Tuesday, the state senate voted 31-9 to override Kelly’s veto and House lawmakers backed the override by a margin of 84-35.
Bryce, who is also a medical doctor, told Fox News Digital that “The treatments listed in SB 63 are risky, ineffective, and can cause irreparable harm. An estimated 87% of children with gender dysphoria grow comfortable with the body of their birth by age 18, so there is no reason for children to be subjected to that. The effective treatment is counseling combined with treatment for underlying psychiatric disorders. And give the children time to grow up.”
Matt Sharp, Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel and director of the ADF Center for Public Policy, called Kelly’s veto “misguided.”
“Denying the biological truth that we are either male or female hurts real people, especially vulnerable children,” Sharp said.
“Now and always, young people deserve the loving embrace of family members who guide them toward this truth rather than be subjected to risky, often irreversible, and life-altering experimentation and drugs,” Sharp added. “By overriding the governor’s misguided veto, the Kansas Legislature has taken a critical step to protect children from radical activists that peddle a gender ideology that sends kids down a one-way path of lifetime medicalization.”
Kelly vetoed similar legislation on April 12, 2024.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Kelly said the Help Not Harm Act was “not appropriate” for her state.
“Right now, the Legislature should be focused on ways to help Kansans cope with rising prices. That is the most important issue for Kansans,” Kelly said. “That is where my focus is.”
“Infringing on parental rights is not appropriate, nor is it a Kansas value,” she added. “As I’ve said before, it is not the job of politicians to stand between a parent and a child who needs medical care of any kind. This legislation will also drive families, businesses, and health care workers out of our state, stifling our economy and exacerbating our workforce shortage issue. It is disappointing that the Legislature continues to push for government interference in Kansans’ private medical decisions instead of focusing on issues that improve all Kansans’ lives.”
In a post on X, Kansas Speaker of the House Daniel Hawkins called the veto override “so important.”
