- A congressional committee advanced Rep. Mike Kennedy's bill limiting gender-related treatments for minors.
- The bill allows lawsuits against providers if patients regret gender-related procedures later.
- Democrats on the committee called the bill a distraction from other issues facing the country.
SALT LAKE CITY — A congressional committee advanced a bill proposed by Utah Rep. Mike Kennedy that would make it easier for patients to sue over gender-related surgeries and hormone treatments.
The House Committee on the Judiciary advanced the bill to the full House of Representatives on a 15-8 vote on Wednesday. The bill is named for Chloe Cole, a prominent activist against gender-related care who later regretted a double mastectomy she had as a 16-year-old.
It would allow patients who received hormone treatments, puberty blockers or surgical procedures to help them transition their gender as minors sue their providers for damages if they later regret their transition. Private lawsuits could also help them recoup any costs associated with later detransitioning.
Kennedy and other Republicans said the bill is needed to protect children from what they say are harmful procedures, but Democrats on the committee called it an attempt to distract from more pressing issues in Washington.
"As both a physician and a legislator, my primary commitment has consistently been the safety and well-being of our children," Kennedy said in a statement. "We are seeing a disturbing trend where radical ideologies have overtaken evidence-based medicine, causing irreversible and terrible damage to children."
The bill is a "great way to distract from corruption, self-enrichment, villainy and incompetence," according to Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Maryland, who pointed to high gas prices caused by the ongoing conflict with Iran.
"This bill makes a mockery of federalism to effectively impose a national ban on gender-affirming care," he said. He added it would have "consequences for vulnerable young people who need our support, not demonization and ostracism.
LGBTQ+ issues have become contentious political fights at the national and state level — Kennedy sponsored a gender-related treatment moratorium for minors in Utah while serving in the state Senate — but experts say there are already guardrails in place to protect patients. Medical professionals no longer perform what is known as top surgery on minors, according to Collin Kuhn, a Salt Lake City-based clinical child and adolescent psychologist who specializes in gender-related care.
Kuhn typically works with patients for about a year before discussing hormone treatments.
"Providers just aren't doing surgery for people under 18," Kuhn told KSL in March after Kennedy's bill was introduced.
Only about 1% of those who received gender-related surgeries went on to regret their decision, which is lower than the rate of regret for elective procedures such as breast augmentation or getting a tattoo, according to a 2024 study published in the American Journal of Surgery.
Kennedy pointed to his 2023 moratorium in Utah — which was extended permanently earlier this year — as a model for ending what he called "evil practices."
"This is a legally durable, constitutionally sound, and clear path forward to stopping a practice that results in the mutilation of children under the guise of care," he said of the Chloe Cole Act.
Having received a favorable recommendation from the committee, the legislation is now up for consideration by the full House.
