SW News: On February 28th, the Republican governor of Mississippi, Jonathan Tate Reeves, signed a measure into law that makes it unlawful for medical professionals to administer hormone treatment or surgical procedures to transgender minors.

The legislation, which went into force immediately, forbids medical professionals in the state from conducting sex reassignment surgery or other gender-affirming or confirming treatments on anyone under the age of 18, as well as from supplying anyone under the age of 18 with hormone replacement therapy or puberty inhibitors.

It also permits the Mississippi State Board of Medical Licensure to terminate physicians' licenses for unlawful gender transition treatments, bans Medicaid financing for transgender youngsters, and bars organizations that provide such procedures from claiming public funds or tax deductions.

Reeves raised an alarm, implying a terrible trend was sweeping the United States. He stressed that these views are promoted to children by radical activists, social media, and online influencers who profit from kids' feelings of guilt about their bodies. "To put an end to this and safeguard our children, I am now signing legislation in Mississippi to do just that," he added.

With a handful of states currently drafting new laws, Mississippi has now joined Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah in approving legislation that forbids the procedures.

Nevertheless, activists and advocacy organizations have claimed that the proposal was driven more by politics than by public safety concerns, despite its proponents' claims to the contrary.

At the same time, a group of lawyers led by the Center for American Liberty has filed a lawsuit against the Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, claiming that they were negligent in their treatment of Chloe Cole, a minor who received chemical and surgical sex change interventions between the ages of 13 and 16 when Cole was a patient at those facilities.

According to a Rasmussen Reports poll conducted last month, the majority of Americans (58%) are in favor of "legislation making it illegal to perform sex-change surgery on minors." Some doctors and transgender activists see these regulations as discriminatory and claim that they limit the use of best practices in medicine for teenage gender dysphoria.