ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Alaska medical professionals who provide gender-affirming care for children could risk disciplinary action under proposed changes to state regulations approved by the state medical board on Friday.
The board unanimously approved draft language that would add those providing medical or surgical intervention to “treat gender dysphoria or facilitate gender transition” to a state regulation outlining unprofessional conduct.
The draft language was proposed by board member Matt Heilala, an Anchorage podiatrist, who also announced that he submitted his resignation effective after Friday’s meeting because he is running for governor.
No member of the public spoke in favor of the change during the meeting over Zoom, but several people spoke against it.
Katherine Easley, a registered nurse, noted that none of the five doctors on the board is involved in transgender care. She said it was important for them to listen to the people of Alaska and other health professionals who say “what you are doing is overstepping.”
Heilala is one of at least eight Republicans planning to run for governor next year. But he told The Associated Press on Thursday that this is an issue the board has been working on for some time and “has nothing to do with my running at all.”
David Wilson, a pilot who is a public member of the board, said the proposed change wasn't politically motivated.
The board asked the Legislature to limit such treatments, but took it up on its own when lawmakers didn’t act on the request.
The draft language will be sent to the state attorney general’s office for review before it gets 30 days of public comment. After that, the board can hold a meeting to receive oral comments. But it is not required to do so before making a final decision.
The medical board at a June meeting designated member Heilala to help draft a statement for consideration that would pertain to declaring those providing the care “as being grossly negligent and therefore subject to disciplinary sanctions,” according to the minutes of that meeting. It was not immediately clear what the possible penalties would be.
Gender-affirming care includes a range of medical and mental health services to support a person’s gender identity, including when it is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. It encompasses counseling, medications that block puberty and hormone therapy to produce physical changes as well as surgeries to transform chests and genitals, though those are rare for minors.
Most major medical groups say access to the treatment is important for those with gender dysphoria and see gender as existing along a spectrum. While there is wide, if not universal, medical consensus, the political situation is contentious.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott had issued an order allowing the state to investigate parents of transgender youth for child abuse. But a Texas judge in 2022 blocked the state from investigating families of transgender youths who have received such care and members of the LGBTQ advocacy group PFLAG Inc. over such medical care.
Tom Pittman, executive director of Identity Inc., an Anchorage-based advocacy and health care organization for the LGBTQ+ community, said nearly 700 Alaska medical professionals have signed an open letter opposing the changes being considered by the board.
Pittman said he expected the board to vote the way it did, but he's encouraged by the support from those who signed the letter and the many who spoke before the vote.
“The health care community understands science, and they got into this field because they care about families, they care about people and they’ll continue to stand behind us,” he said.
The letter campaign organized by Pittman's group said gender-affirming care for adolescents, when provided in partnership with families, is evidence-based medicine.
“Labeling it ‘negligence’ is not a medical conclusion. It is a political act with devastating consequences: punishing clinicians, undermining parents, and denying young people lifesaving treatment,” the letter states.
Fewer than 100 youth are receiving such gender-affirming care, Pittman said.
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Associated Press writer Becky Bohrer contributed from Juneau, Alaska.
Mark Thiessen, The Associated Press
