Bill > SB493

This bill removes the expiration date on provisions of the Missouri Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, which restricts gender-affirming medical care for individuals under 18 years old. The bill prohibits health care providers from performing gender transition surgeries, prescribing cross-sex hormones, or administering puberty-blocking drugs to minors, with a narrow exception for individuals already receiving such treatments prior to August 28, 2023. Healthcare providers who violate these restrictions would face professional misconduct charges and potential license revocation. The bill establishes a legal framework allowing individuals who received such treatments as minors to sue healthcare providers up to 15 years after turning 21, with potential damages up to three times the assessed economic and non-economic damages, and mandatory attorney's fees. The legislation includes specific definitions of terms like biological sex, gender transition, and cross-sex hormones, and provides exemptions for individuals with certain medical disorders of sex development or immediate life-threatening conditions. The bill emphasizes that these restrictions do not apply to speech protected by the First Amendment and aims to limit medical interventions related to gender transition for minors.

Health and Social Services

https://www.senate.mo.gov/25info/BTS_Web/Bill.aspx?SessionType=R&BillID=304599