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Senate amends HB54 to add bans on puberty blockers for minors and bar state funding for gender-affirming care; amendments pass after heated debate
Summary
Lawmakers amended House Bill 54 on Feb. 10 to add language prohibiting puberty blockers for minors and to bar use of state funds for gender-affirming care; both amendments passed by recorded votes (30–18). The measures provoked extended partisan debate over medical discretion, parental rights and state funding.
The Georgia Senate on Feb. 10 debated and adopted amendments to the senate substitute of House Bill 54, a health-care bill originally focused on advanced practice registered nurses, physician assistants and home health services. Floor amendments added prohibitions on puberty blockers for minors and barred state funds or state facilities from being used for gender-affirming care.
Senator (author, speaker 34), the amendment sponsor, said amendment 1 would insert four words "relating to puberty blockers" into existing law and argued the change closes what the sponsor described as a gap in prior statutes regulating treatment of minors with gender dysphoria. The sponsor told colleagues the measure "adds in those 4 words relating to puberty blockers" and said the intent is to prohibit certain interventions for minors while preserving mental-health treatment and adult choice.
Sponsor of the companion amendment (speaker 33) told the chamber amendment 1a mirrors a provision considered previously and "no state fund shall be expended for health care benefits coverage including coverage for gender affirming care." That amendment was described as removing state taxpayer funding for gender-affirming medical interventions rather than banning privately funded care.
Opponents called the additions a diversion from bipartisan home-health work and warned the amendments would limit medical discretion and harm families. Senator 35 said the chamber had "brought culture wars back" and urged colleagues to vote no, warning of likely lawsuits. Senator 8 and others argued the amendment eliminates discretion for doctors and parents and warned about slippery-slope consequences for other health coverage decisions.
On recorded votes the chamber adopted amendment 1a (a's 30, nays 18) and then amendment 1 as amended (a's 30, nays 18). The presiding officer announced both measures had prevailed. The transcript contains multiple floor exchanges over procedural germaneness and political motivations; members on both sides framed the measures as matters of conscience, medical policy and state fiscal stewardship.
The underlying HB 54 measures concerning home health practitioners and training remained part of the bill as amended. The transcript records senators calling for a "clean" home-health bill at several points and objections that an originally bipartisan access measure had been "corrupted" by the added language targeting transgender medical care.
The amendments direct that state funds and state facilities not be used for the specified gender-affirming care covered by amendment 1a and insert prohibitions relating to puberty blockers in the section addressing treatment of minors. The transcript does not record implementation language, effective dates, or administrative rules; those would be resolved in bill text and subsequent committee work.
