Florida health care providers and abortion clinics, including Planned Parenthood, stopped providing transgender prescriptions and surgeries to adults in response to legislation enacted Wednesday.
Legislation prohibits sex reassignment treatments for minors and limits who can provide transgender treatment to patients of any age.
Now only doctors can treat those who identify as transgender, which means physician assistants, nurse practitioners and certified nurse midwives can no longer offer these services.
The law entered into force as soon as it was signed.
The hill reports“Gender-affirming health care for adults, under the new law, can only be administered once an informed consent form is signed, but the state medical boards responsible for writing the forms do not provide it. haven’t done yet, forcing health care providers across the state in a difficult position.
This means that prescriptions can no longer be provided through telehealth services.
“Clearly the law was designed not just to restrict adult care, but to cause an immediate gap in access – providers across the state are being forced to suspend services because the law came into effect. effective immediately and that the state has not enacted the consent forms required to comply,” a Planned Parenthood spokesperson told The Hill.
Planned Parenthood said the pause is temporary and they expect to resume offering these services in mid-June.
Previously, the abortion organization had nurse practitioners providing elective transgender care.
“We will need to reorganize doctors’ schedules, develop new consent forms with language in line with new legal requirements, and modify the delivery of this care because we are only allowed to offer telehealth for certain appointments,” said said the organization. “Our commitment to providing high-quality, compassionate care to our gender-affirming patients on hormone therapy remains unwavering. We will navigate these changes together.
Planned Parenthood aren’t the only clinics suspending treatment.
“Due to SB 254, and to meet requirements set forth by the State of Florida, it is with deep regret that we are no longer able to provide Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT), Surgical Clearance Letters and gender marker letters to our transgender, gender non-binary and gender non-conforming patients,” 26Health, an LGBTQ health center in Orlando, said in a statement.
“While we are unable to provide these services at this time, 26Health strongly believes that members of our transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming community deserve to live fully and openly as themselves,” the statement continued. . “We will continue to provide care to our gender diverse community members, including primary care and mental health services, which are extremely important in this difficult climate.”