While Georgia law protects kids from transgender surgeries, taxpayers in the state may still be on the hook for procedures in other states thanks to a legal loophole, one Republican lawmaker warns.
Georgia State Senator Blake Tillery is pushing the state legislature to pass a bill that would end all state funding for transgender surgeries for both adults and minors. Tillery, the chair of the Senate appropriations committee, told The Daily Wire that most Georgians would be “appalled” to learn how their tax dollars were being spent.
“This is not a hard decision. This is whether or not children should undergo gender-mutilating surgeries performed by adults,” Tillery said. “It’s whether or not your state taxpayer dollars should be used to pay for gender-altering surgeries that defy biology and for the vast majority of Georgians, the decision here is clear: this isn’t something they support and it’s not something that should be supported with their taxpayer dollars.”
While state law currently prohibits transgender surgeries on kids, Tillery said that the state is required to cover the transgender surgeries of minors covered under the State’s Health Benefit Plan. The plan applies to public school teachers and other state employees. Around 660,000 people are currently covered under the plan.
Tillery said a Georgia citizen covered under the State Health Benefit Plan could leave the state and go to a place like New York or California and have a transgender surgery done on their child, paid for by the state.
He said that “if we don’t ban our state taxpayer dollars from being used to fund” these surgeries that the “convoluted system of laws requires our state taxpayer funding to be used” for the procedures in other states.
For the last two years, Tillery, who is running for lieutenant governor, has spearheaded efforts in the Senate to cut off taxpayer funding for transgender surgeries for both children and adults. His first bill to take such action, SB 39, passed the Senate, but has yet to be acted on by the House.
Last month, the Senate passed a proposal banning puberty blockers for kids, with an amendment to end funding for transgender surgeries. The House has not voted yet on the amended bill. The office of House Speaker Jon Burns did not respond to request for comment.
The amendment to HB 54 was introduced by Tillery and specified that “no state funds shall be expended for health benefits coverage that includes coverage for gender-affirming care” and that “no healthcare facility owned or operated by the state and no physician or other healthcare provider employed by an agency or entity of this state shall provide gender-affirming care.”
He noted that state dollars cannot go to other elective procedures like facelifts or tummy tucks.
“Georgians aren’t allowed to use their state health benefit plan or private insurance or other elective surgeries,” he said. “Why should their state taxpayer dollars be used to pay for others’ elective surgeries? Especially those that go well against the norm of the majority of Georgia’s beliefs.”
The push to end all funding for transgender procedures comes as over two dozen Republican-led states have shielded kids from surgeries and hormonal interventions. At the same time, some hospitals have ended their transgender surgery offerings.
The Nashville-based Vanderbilt Health announced last month that it was phasing out offering patients procedures like crafting pseudo-genitalia for gender-confused individuals and removing the breasts of women who identify as men.
