Category: Brian Fitzpatrick
‘This is a must-win’: These 4 Republicans voted against banning trans surgeries on children
The House GOP passed a bill outright banning transgender surgeries for minors, yet some Republicans still objected.
Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s bill Protect Children’s Innocence Act passed in a 216-211 late-night vote on Wednesday. This legislation would make it a felony to perform sex changes or provide puberty blockers and hormone therapy to children.
‘I wish that Republicans were as hell-bent on protecting children as Democrats are when it comes to mutilating them.’
Although the bill was passed largely along party lines, both Democrats and Republicans had some defectors.
On the Republican side, Reps. Mike Lawler of New York, Mike Kennedy of Utah, Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, and Gabe Evans of Colorado voted against criminalizing transgender surgeries for children. Only three Democrats voted in favor of Greene’s bill: Reps. Henry Cuellar of Texas, Donald Davis of North Carolina, and Vicente Gonzalez of Texas.
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Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Greene’s legislation is one of two GOP-led bills on the docket targeting transgender interventions for minors. Terry Schilling, president of the American Principles Project, outlined the key differences between Greene’s Protect Children’s Innocence Act and Texas Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw’s bill the Do No Harm in Medicaid Act.
“It’s necessary because it bans the procedure outright,” Schilling said of Greene’s bill. “We need this nationwide, because children in California should be protected from these procedures just as much as the kids in Texas or Oklahoma or Alabama or Mississippi or Florida.”
“If we can’t get the full ban done, we should at least make sure the taxpayers aren’t paying for it, right?” Schilling said of Crenshaw’s bill. “If you want a sex-change procedure, you should have to pay for it yourself. These are so expensive. They’re so harmful to the individual. Why are you making us participate in this?”
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Both bills are useful because they force lawmakers to go on the record, articulating their degree of support for transgender ideology. Greene’s bill saw near unanimous support from Republicans as well as near unanimous condemnation from Democrats. Crenshaw’s bill puts forward a softer legislative approach, leaving room for moderates on either side to clarify their views on transgender interventions for children.
“I wish that Republicans were as hell-bent on protecting children as Democrats are when it comes to mutilating them,” Schilling told Blaze News. “There’s a difference between the two parties and how fired up they are when it comes to their principles. I think not giving kids sex changes is so commonsense. But these guys will figure out a way to make it controversial and debatable.”
“If Republicans can’t deliver on these things, or at least show that they’re trying to deliver, voters are going to give up on us morally, financially, and politically,” Schilling added. “This is a must-win for Republicans.”
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