Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill Wednesday banning the “mutilation” of minors via sex-reassignment surgeries, according to remarks made at a press conference.
SB 245 passed the Sunshine State Legislature earlier this month with significant majorities in both the House and the Senate. DeSantis, a Republican, announced during a press conference Wednesday that he had signed into law a number of pieces of legislation, including a ban on transgender surgeries; diversity, equity, and inclusion in education; and limits on sex, gender identity, and sexual orientation lessons for kindergarten through eighth-grade students.
“[The bill] will outlaw the mutilation of minors, it will outlaw the surgical procedure and experimental puberty blockers for minors,” DeSantis said.
The new law requires adults who wish to have sex-reassignment surgeries to be informed of the “irreversible nature and about the danger of the procedures” by a doctor and then sign a consent form, according to the bill. The bill also gives Florida courts the right to “intervene and halt procedures for out of state procedures” when it involves minors.
“You have some states in this country that want to be a haven for these types of procedures, and even welcome minors without their parent’s consent into some of their jurisdictions,” DeSantis said during the press conference. “We’re obviously doing the opposite here and I think this provision is important. This is going to create a way to recover damages for injury or death resulting from mutilating surgeries or these experimental puberty blockers given to a minor.”
DeSantis went on to explain that some minors later regret their transition surgeries and that they should be able to sue doctors and medical providers for “hurt[ing] them.”
DeSantis’ office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
Originally published by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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