SW News: In the US state of Oklahoma, Governor Kevin Stitt on Tuesday signed a bill that stops funding gender transition services for minors at Oklahoma Children’s Hospital.

As per State Bill 3XX, funds to carry out gender transition services for minors, including surgeries and hormone therapies, will be blocked.

Stitt stated that with the new bill, they are intending to prevent children from undergoing gender transition surgeries and therapies. He also added that it is inappropriate to invest taxpayers' money in “condoning, promoting, or performing these types of controversial procedures on healthy children.”

The Oklahoma legislature expressed their concern over the Roy G. Biv Program provided at the Children’s Hospital. According to the hospital’s website, the program provides “gender-affirming hormone therapy” and advertises to help patients “find surgeons who perform gender-affirming surgeries.”

The newly signed bill will provide almost $40 million in American Rescue Plan funding for behavioral health care for children, $20 million for cancer patients who have been unevenly affected by the pandemic, $44 million for electronic health record systems and over $5 million for mobile dental units.