UPDATE: House committee advances youth transgender treatment bill

The House State Affairs committee has advanced a bill that would criminalize gender reassignment procedures on minors in South Dakota.

HB 1057 passed on an 8-5 vote Wednesday morning, moving the bill to the House floor.

The committee passed an amended form of the bill, lowering the violation from a Class 4 felony to a Class 1 misdemeanor. The amendment also limited the scope of medical professionals who might be targeted by the proposed law, and lowered the age of minors targeted by the bill from 18 to 16..

The bill is sponsored by Rep. Fred Deutsch (R, Florence), who represents District 4.

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The House State Affairs Committee is taking up a bill Wednesday morning designed to make it illegal to perform gender reassignment procedures on minors in South Dakota.

District 4 Representative Fred Deutsch (R-Dist 4; Florence, SD) introduced HB 1057 a bill aimed at making it a Class 4 felony for medical professionals from, “attempting to change or affirm the minor's perception of the minor's sex.”

The bill includes all minor children as identified in South Dakota, including emancipated minors, or minors living independently.

HB1057 does provide certain exeptions to the law, specifically minors born with a, “medically-verifiable genetic disorder of sex development.”

The bill went before the House State Affairs Committee Wednesday morning in Pierre.

This is legislative day 6 of 37 of the 95th Session of the South Dakota State Legislature.