Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB653 Compare Versions

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11 I
22 119THCONGRESS
33 1
44 STSESSION H. R. 653
55 To protect children from medical malpractice in the form of gender transition
66 procedures.
77 IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
88 JANUARY23, 2025
99 Mr. B
1010 ABIN(for himself and Mr. MCCORMICK) introduced the following bill;
1111 which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in
1212 addition to the Committees on the Judiciary, Education and Workforce,
1313 Natural Resources, and Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently
1414 determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provi-
1515 sions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
1616 A BILL
1717 To protect children from medical malpractice in the form
1818 of gender transition procedures.
1919 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
2020 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
2121 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
2222 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protect Minors from 4
2323 Medical Malpractice Act of 2025’’. 5
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2626 •HR 653 IH
2727 SEC. 2. PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION FOR A GENDER-TRANSI-1
2828 TION PROCEDURE PERFORMED ON A MINOR. 2
2929 (a) I
3030 NGENERAL.—A medical practitioner, in any cir-3
3131 cumstance described in subsection (c), who performs a 4
3232 gender-transition procedure on an individual who is less 5
3333 than 18 years of age shall, as described in subsection (b), 6
3434 be liable to the individual if injured (including any phys-7
3535 ical, psychological, emotional, or physiological harms) by 8
3636 such procedure, related treatment, or the after effects of 9
3737 the procedure or treatment. 10
3838 (b) P
3939 RIVATERIGHT OFACTION.—An individual cov-11
4040 ered by subsection (a) who receives a gender-transition 12
4141 procedure from a medical practitioner (or a representative, 13
4242 including a legal guardian, on behalf of such individual) 14
4343 may, not later than the day that is 30 years after the date 15
4444 on which the individual turns 18 years of age, bring a civil 16
4545 action against such medical practitioner in a court of com-17
4646 petent jurisdiction for— 18
4747 (1) declaratory or injunctive relief; 19
4848 (2) compensatory damages; 20
4949 (3) punitive damages; and 21
5050 (4) attorney’s fees and costs. 22
5151 (c) C
5252 IRCUMSTANCES.—For the purposes of sub-23
5353 section (a), the circumstances described in this subsection 24
5454 are that— 25
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5858 (1) the medical practitioner or the individual re-1
5959 ceiving the gender-transition procedure traveled in 2
6060 interstate or foreign commerce, or traveled using a 3
6161 means, channel, facility, or instrumentality of inter-4
6262 state or foreign commerce, in furtherance of or in 5
6363 connection with the conduct described in subsection 6
6464 (a); 7
6565 (2) the medical practitioner used a means, 8
6666 channel, facility, or instrumentality of interstate or 9
6767 foreign commerce in furtherance of or in connection 10
6868 with the conduct described in subsection (a); 11
6969 (3) any payment of any kind was made, directly 12
7070 or indirectly, in furtherance of or in connection with 13
7171 the conduct described in subsection (a) using any 14
7272 means, channel, facility, or instrumentality of inter-15
7373 state or foreign commerce or in or affecting inter-16
7474 state or foreign commerce; 17
7575 (4) the medical practitioner transmitted in 18
7676 interstate or foreign commerce any communication 19
7777 relating to or in furtherance of the conduct de-20
7878 scribed in subsection (a) using any means, channel, 21
7979 facility, or instrumentality of interstate or foreign 22
8080 commerce or in or affecting interstate or foreign 23
8181 commerce by any means or in any manner, including 24
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8484 •HR 653 IH
8585 by computer, mail, wire, or electromagnetic trans-1
8686 mission; 2
8787 (5) any instrument, item, substance, or other 3
8888 object that has traveled in interstate or foreign com-4
8989 merce was used to perform the conduct described in 5
9090 subsection (a); 6
9191 (6) the conduct described in subsection (a) oc-7
9292 curred within the special maritime and territorial ju-8
9393 risdiction of the United States, or any territory or 9
9494 possession of the United States; or 10
9595 (7) the conduct described in subsection (a) oth-11
9696 erwise occurred in or affected interstate or foreign 12
9797 commerce. 13
9898 SEC. 3. PRESERVING FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE AND MED-14
9999 ICAL JUDGEMENT FOR MEDICAL PROVIDERS. 15
100100 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no provi-16
101101 sion of Federal law shall require, or be construed to re-17
102102 quire, a medical practitioner to perform a gender-transi-18
103103 tion procedure. 19
104104 SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON FUNDING FOR CERTAIN STATES. 20
105105 Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any 21
106106 State that requires medical practitioners to perform any 22
107107 gender-transition procedure on an individual in the State 23
108108 shall be ineligible to receive any Federal funding from the 24
109109 Department of Health and Human Services. 25
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113113 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 1
114114 In this Act: 2
115115 (1) B
116116 IOLOGICAL SEX.—The term ‘‘biological 3
117117 sex’’ means the genetic classification of an individual 4
118118 as male or female, as reflected in the organization 5
119119 of the body of such individual for a reproductive role 6
120120 or capacity, such as through sex chromosomes, natu-7
121121 rally occurring sex hormones, and internal and ex-8
122122 ternal genitalia present at birth, without regard to 9
123123 the subjective sense of identity of the individual. 10
124124 (2) G
125125 ENDER-TRANSITION PROCEDURE .— 11
126126 (A) I
127127 N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 12
128128 subparagraph (B), the term ‘‘gender-transition 13
129129 procedure’’ means— 14
130130 (i) the prescription or administration 15
131131 of puberty-blocking drugs for the purpose 16
132132 of changing the body of an individual so 17
133133 that it conforms to the subjective sense of 18
134134 identity of the individual, in the case such 19
135135 identity is at odds with the individual’s bi-20
136136 ological sex; 21
137137 (ii) the prescription or administration 22
138138 of cross-sex hormones for the purpose of 23
139139 changing the body of an individual so that 24
140140 it conforms to the subjective sense of iden-25
141141 tity of the individual, in the case such 26
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145145 identity is at odds with the individual’s bi-1
146146 ological sex; or 2
147147 (iii) a surgery to change the body of 3
148148 an individual so that it conforms to the 4
149149 subjective sense of identity of the indi-5
150150 vidual, in the case such identity is at odds 6
151151 with the individual’s biological sex. 7
152152 (B) E
153153 XCEPTION.—The term ‘‘gender-tran-8
154154 sition procedure’’ does not include— 9
155155 (i) an intervention described in sub-10
156156 paragraph (A) that is performed on— 11
157157 (I) an individual with biological 12
158158 sex characteristics that are inherently 13
159159 ambiguous, such as those born with 14
160160 46 XX chromosomes with virilization, 15
161161 46 XY chromosomes with 16
162162 undervirilization, or having both ovar-17
163163 ian and testicular tissue; or 18
164164 (II) an individual with respect to 19
165165 whom a physician has determined 20
166166 through genetic or biochemical testing 21
167167 that the individual does not have nor-22
168168 mal sex chromosome structure, sex 23
169169 steroid hormone production, or sex 24
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173173 steroid hormone action, for a biologi-1
174174 cal male or biological female; 2
175175 (ii) the treatment of any infection, in-3
176176 jury, disease, or disorder that has been 4
177177 caused or exacerbated by the performance 5
178178 of an intervention described in subpara-6
179179 graph (A) without regard to whether the 7
180180 intervention was performed in accordance 8
181181 with State or Federal law or whether the 9
182182 intervention is covered by the private right 10
183183 of action under section 2; or 11
184184 (iii) any procedure undertaken be-12
185185 cause the individual suffers from a physical 13
186186 disorder, physical injury, or physical illness 14
187187 that would, as certified by a physician, 15
188188 place the individual in imminent danger of 16
189189 death or impairment of major bodily func-17
190190 tion unless the procedure is performed. 18
191191 (3) M
192192 EDICAL PRACTITIONER.—The term ‘‘med-19
193193 ical practitioner’’ means a person who is licensed, 20
194194 certified, or otherwise authorized by the laws of a 21
195195 State to administer health care in the ordinary 22
196196 course of the practice of the person’s profession. 23
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200200 SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE. 1
201201 This Act shall take effect on the date of enactment 2
202202 of this Act. 3
203203 Æ
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