Multiple states across the nation have recently taken steps to protect children by banning transgender “transition” surgery for pediatric patients, along with hormone injections and puberty blockers. As usual, however, the Democrats who control the government in Maryland are going in the opposite direction. A new bill being debated in the Maryland state legislature dubbed the “Trans Health Equity Act,” would force the Maryland Medical Assistance Program (MMAP) to provide treatments related to “gender reassignment.” The bill hasn’t come up for a vote yet, however, and there is a surprising amount of hesitancy being expressed by some members. (CBS Baltimore)

Maryland lawmakers are considering a bill that would provide “gender-affirming care” for transgender Marylanders.

But this controversial issue continues to draw opposition. Not just in Maryland, but across the country.

For transgender people — especially young people — who don’t identify with the gender they were born with, this bill aims to make it easier for them to get surgery so that they can have a body that matches their identity.

Advocates of the LGBTQ community rallied in Annapolis Tuesday to support the “Trans Health Equity Act.”

Even if this legislation is passed, it’s really more of an administrative measure than any sort of reversal of official policy. Transgender treatments are not illegal in Maryland and there are doctors and clinics out there providing such services. What this measure would do is force a change to the Maryland Medical Assitance Program. It’s a state program that acts as a supplement to Medicaid for low-income residents of the state. The program does not currently cover gender-bending treatments.

Until the final legislative language is approved, we don’t know if the bill would specifically include or exclude pediatric treatments involving hormones, puberty blockers, or surgery. That should be a key portion of the debate. While any such “treatments” strike me as an endorsement of what was long considered a mental illness in the medical community, as long as it’s an adult requesting it, it’s probably none of our business. Do whatever you like to your body, provided you’re willing to assume responsibility for the results.

But when it comes to children who are unable to provide informed consent for irreversible hormonal or chemical treatments and surgical procedures that would mutilate their bodies, that’s another matter entirely. The state should not be funding this sort of evil “science.” They should be outlawing it and locking up the doctors who engage in the practice.

But at the same time, even the application of such a law to adults gives me pause. Adding such treatments to a government subsidy program could rightly be seen as a state endorsement of the procedures. The legislature would effectively be giving a seal of approval to the social contagion of the transgender craze that’s been sweeping the nation. The government (at any level) shouldn’t be legitimizing such things. To the contrary, they should be steering people toward mental health care.

Sadly, this is Maryland we’re talking about. Progressives rule the legislature and they are unlikely to start demonstrating a backlash of common sense at this point.