TOPEKA — The Kansas Senate approved with a bipartisan supermajority a bill prohibiting health professionals from providing gender-affirming care to minors and enforcing that statewide ban with civil, financial and regulatory sanctions for violators.
The Senate voted 32-8 on Wednesday to forward the legislation to the Kansas House, where it was expected to be approved and sent to Gov. Laura Kelly. The Democratic governor vetoed a comparable bill last year, but the Legislature was unable to pull together two-thirds majorities necessary to override her.
Senate President Ty Masterson, a Republican from Andover, said the Help Not Harm Act was necessary to protect children. He said surgeries, puberty blockers and other measures violated the duty of a medical professional to do no harm to the patient.
“A supermajority of the Kansas Senate took a firm stand in support of helping and not harming children by making it clear that transgender ideology and the mutilation of minors is no longer legal in Kansas,” Masterson said.
Masterson said credit for progress on the legislation should be shared with “courageous men and women who have spoken out against the harm these procedures are causing our children.”
‘This bill is extreme’
The legislation was part of a multi-year campaign in Kansas to stop individuals under the age of 18 from receiving gender-affirming care. It was a political rejection of decisions by Kansans to seek treatment to address a condition described as gender dysphoria, in which a person experienced distress due to a mismatch between biological sex and gender identity.
Health and medical associations warned of harmful consequences to closing off care for youth. Opponents of the measure said it was outrageous to place in statute potential civil penalties and license revocations for professionals working within their scope of practice.
Such a law could be challenged on constitutional grounds. A Kansas Supreme Court decision affirming the right to abortion, which relied upon analysis of the Kansas Constitution’s Bill of Rights, hinged on a belief Kansans had a core constitutional right to bodily autonomy.
Eight of nine Democrats in the Senate voted against the measure. All 31 Republicans voted for the bill, and that veto-proof majority was bolstered by support from Sen. David Haley, a Democrat from Kansas City, Kansas.
Sen. Cindy Holscher, D-Overland Park, offered an amendment — it was defeated — that would have allowed minors taking medication related to gender-affirming treatment to continue that regimen after a Dec. 31, 2025, deadline written into the bill.
“This bill is extreme and expands far beyond a ban on certain kinds of health care,” Holscher said. “This bill inserts politicians into highly personal, private health care situations and that is against the values of Kansans.”
Identical bills were introduced in the House and Senate to advance the anti-transgender agenda. Republican Sen. Renee Erickson of Wichita introduced Senate Bill 63, while Republican Rep. Ron Bryce of Coffeyville was responsible for House Bill 2071.
Committees in both chambers conducted public hearings on the bills, but the full Senate acted first. The House could move ahead with Bryce’s bill, which would be open to amendment, or simply concur with the Senate to move the bill as quickly as possible to Kelly.
Once it officially arrived on the governor’s desk, she would have 10 days to determine whether to veto it, sign it or allow it to become law without her signature.
In 2024, Kelly said Kansas shouldn’t join about two-dozen states that banned or restricted gender-affirming care for minors because those actions trampled parental rights and targeted a tiny sector of the state’s population.
