Gender-affirming health care should be protected, ABA delegates advise
The House of Delegates called for greater protection for gender-affirming health care at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago on Monday. (Image from Shutterstock)
The House of Delegates called for greater protection for gender-affirming health care at the ABA Annual Meeting in Chicago on Monday.
Resolution 510 urges legislatures to enact laws that both protect patients’ access to gender-affirming care and health care professionals’ ability to provide that care.
Bobbi Bittker, a member of the Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice Council and co-chair of the section’s Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Committee, spoke in favor of the resolution and its accompanying report.
“Imagine trying to reach the hospital when time is precious and being blocked because of a bomb threat,” Bittker said. “This is the reality of the United States because medical facilities, health care providers and patients seeking gender-affirming care are under threat.”
The Section of Civil Rights and Social Justice submitted Resolution 510 in response to increasing efforts nationwide to limit transgender and nonbinary individuals’ access to gender-affirming care, which includes puberty-blocking medications, hormone therapy and psychological treatment.
According to a study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health in October, 70% of mental and physical health gender-affirming care providers reported receiving threats of violence because of their care. The study, which is cited in the resolution’s report, notes other significant barriers for providers and their patients, including the criminalization of gender-affirming care and designation of the practice as child abuse.
Bittker added that Resolution 510 will allow the ABA to advocate for safe access to gender-affirming care providers while condemning threats made against them and their patients; protect the rule of law and safeguard health care providers’ autonomy to practice according to their own professional ethics.
Follow along with the ABA Journal’s coverage of the 2024 ABA Annual Meeting here.
“The ABA has been consistent in its commitment to ensuring access to health care for all and specifically for gender-nonconforming individuals,” Bittker said.
In 2020, the House approved a measure that opposes laws and policies that discriminate against transgender and nonbinary individuals or impose barriers to obtaining or providing gender-affirming care.
The House overwhelmingly adopted Resolution 510. Its co-sponsors are the Coalition on Racial and Ethnic Justice, Commission on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity, and Commission on Hispanic Legal Rights and Responsibilities.
See also:
Pronouns should be respected and trans youths protected, ABA House says
ABA develops guide for drafting laws to ban controversial conversion therapy for LGBTQ minors
