By Emily Wax-Thibodeaux and Samantha Schmidt

South Dakota’s Republican-dominated House passed a bill on Wednesday that would ban physicians from treating transgender children with hormones and sex reassignment surgery, making it the first state to take action on a flurry of bills restricting medical interventions for transgender youth.

Lawmakers voted 46-23 in favor of the bill, which makes it a misdemeanor for doctors to provide puberty blockers or other treatments affecting gender expression to children under 16 years old. It carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a fine of up to $2,000.

The bill will be sent to the state Senate for a committee hearing as soon as next week.

Rep. Fred Deutsch, the bill’s primary sponsor, said the legislation would protect vulnerable children who “are being chemically castrated, sterilized, and surgically mutilated.”

“This is a bill of compassion,” Deutsch said as he introduced the bill at Wednesday’s hearing. “It simply says wait, wait until your 16th birthday.”

But to parents and advocates of transgender children, along with many members of the medical community, the bill is a form of discrimination that would take away lifesaving treatments. The debate is a stark symbol of the nation’s culture wars, with Republican and Democratic lawmakers disputing not just medical studies, but also parenting and the role of doctors in American life. Read more via Washington Post