TITLE 18

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS

CHAPTER 15

CHILDREN AND VULNERABLE ADULTS

18-1506C.  VULNERABLE CHILD PROTECTION. (1) This section shall be known and may be cited as the "Vulnerable Child Protection Act."

(2)  As used in this section:

(a)  "Child" means any person under eighteen (18) years of age; and

(b)  "Sex" means the immutable biological and physiological characteristics, specifically the chromosomes and internal and external reproductive anatomy, genetically determined at conception and generally recognizable at birth, that define an individual as male or female.

(3)  A medical provider shall not engage in any of the following practices upon a child for the purpose of attempting to alter the appearance of or affirm the child’s perception of the child’s sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child’s biological sex:

(a)  Performing surgeries that sterilize or mutilate, or artificially construct tissue with the appearance of genitalia that differs from the child’s biological sex, including castration, vasectomy, hysterectomy, oophorectomy, metoidioplasty, orchiectomy, penectomy, phalloplasty, clitoroplasty, vaginoplasty, vulvoplasty, ovariectomy, or reconstruction of the fixed part of the urethra with or without metoidioplasty, phalloplasty, scrotoplasty, or the implantation of erection or testicular prostheses;

(b)  Performing a mastectomy;

(c)  Administering or supplying the following medications that induce profound morphologic changes in the genitals of a child or induce transient or permanent infertility:

(i)   Puberty-blocking medication to stop or delay normal puberty;

(ii)  Supraphysiological doses of testosterone to a female; or

(iii) Supraphysiological doses of estrogen to a male; or

(d)  Removing any otherwise healthy or nondiseased body part or tissue.

(4)  A surgical operation or medical intervention shall not be a violation of this section if the operation or intervention is:

(a)  Necessary to the health of the person on whom it is performed and is performed by a person licensed in the place of its performance as a medical practitioner, except that a surgical operation or medical intervention is never necessary to the health of the child on whom it is performed if it is for the purpose of attempting to alter the appearance of or affirm the child’s perception of the child’s sex if that perception is inconsistent with the child’s biological sex;

(b)  For the treatment of any infection, injury, disease, or disorder that has been caused or exacerbated by the performance of gender transition procedures, whether or not the procedures were performed in accordance with state and federal law; or

(c)  Performed in accordance with the good faith medical decision of a parent or guardian of a child born with a medically verifiable genetic disorder of sex development, including:

(i)   A child with external biological sex characteristics that are ambiguous and irresolvable, such as a child born having 46, XX chromosomes with virilization, 46, XY chromosomes with undervirilization, or with both ovarian and testicular tissue; or

(ii)  When a physician has otherwise diagnosed a disorder of sexual development in which the physician has determined through genetic testing that the child does not have the normal sex chromosome structure, sex steroid hormone production, or sex steroid hormone action for a male or female.

(5)  Any medical professional convicted of a violation of this section shall be guilty of a felony and shall be imprisoned in the state prison for a term of not more than ten (10) years.

(6)  The provisions of this act are hereby declared to be severable, and if any provision of this act or the application of such provision to any person or circumstance is declared invalid for any reason, such declaration shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this section.

History:

[18-1506C, added 2023, ch. 292, sec. 1, p. 884.]