Us Congress 2025-2026 Regular Session

Us Congress House Bill HB653 Latest Draft

Bill / Introduced Version Filed 02/22/2025

                            I 
119THCONGRESS 
1
STSESSION H. R. 653 
To protect children from medical malpractice in the form of gender transition 
procedures. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JANUARY23, 2025 
Mr. B
ABIN(for himself and Mr. MCCORMICK) introduced the following bill; 
which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in 
addition to the Committees on the Judiciary, Education and Workforce, 
Natural Resources, and Ways and Means, for a period to be subsequently 
determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provi-
sions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 
A BILL 
To protect children from medical malpractice in the form 
of gender transition procedures. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Protect Minors from 4
Medical Malpractice Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. PRIVATE RIGHT OF ACTION FOR A GENDER-TRANSI-1
TION PROCEDURE PERFORMED ON A MINOR. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—A medical practitioner, in any cir-3
cumstance described in subsection (c), who performs a 4
gender-transition procedure on an individual who is less 5
than 18 years of age shall, as described in subsection (b), 6
be liable to the individual if injured (including any phys-7
ical, psychological, emotional, or physiological harms) by 8
such procedure, related treatment, or the after effects of 9
the procedure or treatment. 10
(b) P
RIVATERIGHT OFACTION.—An individual cov-11
ered by subsection (a) who receives a gender-transition 12
procedure from a medical practitioner (or a representative, 13
including a legal guardian, on behalf of such individual) 14
may, not later than the day that is 30 years after the date 15
on which the individual turns 18 years of age, bring a civil 16
action against such medical practitioner in a court of com-17
petent jurisdiction for— 18
(1) declaratory or injunctive relief; 19
(2) compensatory damages; 20
(3) punitive damages; and 21
(4) attorney’s fees and costs. 22
(c) C
IRCUMSTANCES.—For the purposes of sub-23
section (a), the circumstances described in this subsection 24
are that— 25
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(1) the medical practitioner or the individual re-1
ceiving the gender-transition procedure traveled in 2
interstate or foreign commerce, or traveled using a 3
means, channel, facility, or instrumentality of inter-4
state or foreign commerce, in furtherance of or in 5
connection with the conduct described in subsection 6
(a); 7
(2) the medical practitioner used a means, 8
channel, facility, or instrumentality of interstate or 9
foreign commerce in furtherance of or in connection 10
with the conduct described in subsection (a); 11
(3) any payment of any kind was made, directly 12
or indirectly, in furtherance of or in connection with 13
the conduct described in subsection (a) using any 14
means, channel, facility, or instrumentality of inter-15
state or foreign commerce or in or affecting inter-16
state or foreign commerce; 17
(4) the medical practitioner transmitted in 18
interstate or foreign commerce any communication 19
relating to or in furtherance of the conduct de-20
scribed in subsection (a) using any means, channel, 21
facility, or instrumentality of interstate or foreign 22
commerce or in or affecting interstate or foreign 23
commerce by any means or in any manner, including 24
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by computer, mail, wire, or electromagnetic trans-1
mission; 2
(5) any instrument, item, substance, or other 3
object that has traveled in interstate or foreign com-4
merce was used to perform the conduct described in 5
subsection (a); 6
(6) the conduct described in subsection (a) oc-7
curred within the special maritime and territorial ju-8
risdiction of the United States, or any territory or 9
possession of the United States; or 10
(7) the conduct described in subsection (a) oth-11
erwise occurred in or affected interstate or foreign 12
commerce. 13
SEC. 3. PRESERVING FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE AND MED-14
ICAL JUDGEMENT FOR MEDICAL PROVIDERS. 15
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no provi-16
sion of Federal law shall require, or be construed to re-17
quire, a medical practitioner to perform a gender-transi-18
tion procedure. 19
SEC. 4. PROHIBITION ON FUNDING FOR CERTAIN STATES. 20
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, any 21
State that requires medical practitioners to perform any 22
gender-transition procedure on an individual in the State 23
shall be ineligible to receive any Federal funding from the 24
Department of Health and Human Services. 25
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SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 1
In this Act: 2
(1) B
IOLOGICAL SEX.—The term ‘‘biological 3
sex’’ means the genetic classification of an individual 4
as male or female, as reflected in the organization 5
of the body of such individual for a reproductive role 6
or capacity, such as through sex chromosomes, natu-7
rally occurring sex hormones, and internal and ex-8
ternal genitalia present at birth, without regard to 9
the subjective sense of identity of the individual. 10
(2) G
ENDER-TRANSITION PROCEDURE .— 11
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in 12
subparagraph (B), the term ‘‘gender-transition 13
procedure’’ means— 14
(i) the prescription or administration 15
of puberty-blocking drugs for the purpose 16
of changing the body of an individual so 17
that it conforms to the subjective sense of 18
identity of the individual, in the case such 19
identity is at odds with the individual’s bi-20
ological sex; 21
(ii) the prescription or administration 22
of cross-sex hormones for the purpose of 23
changing the body of an individual so that 24
it conforms to the subjective sense of iden-25
tity of the individual, in the case such 26
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identity is at odds with the individual’s bi-1
ological sex; or 2
(iii) a surgery to change the body of 3
an individual so that it conforms to the 4
subjective sense of identity of the indi-5
vidual, in the case such identity is at odds 6
with the individual’s biological sex. 7
(B) E
XCEPTION.—The term ‘‘gender-tran-8
sition procedure’’ does not include— 9
(i) an intervention described in sub-10
paragraph (A) that is performed on— 11
(I) an individual with biological 12
sex characteristics that are inherently 13
ambiguous, such as those born with 14
46 XX chromosomes with virilization, 15
46 XY chromosomes with 16
undervirilization, or having both ovar-17
ian and testicular tissue; or 18
(II) an individual with respect to 19
whom a physician has determined 20
through genetic or biochemical testing 21
that the individual does not have nor-22
mal sex chromosome structure, sex 23
steroid hormone production, or sex 24
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steroid hormone action, for a biologi-1
cal male or biological female; 2
(ii) the treatment of any infection, in-3
jury, disease, or disorder that has been 4
caused or exacerbated by the performance 5
of an intervention described in subpara-6
graph (A) without regard to whether the 7
intervention was performed in accordance 8
with State or Federal law or whether the 9
intervention is covered by the private right 10
of action under section 2; or 11
(iii) any procedure undertaken be-12
cause the individual suffers from a physical 13
disorder, physical injury, or physical illness 14
that would, as certified by a physician, 15
place the individual in imminent danger of 16
death or impairment of major bodily func-17
tion unless the procedure is performed. 18
(3) M
EDICAL PRACTITIONER.—The term ‘‘med-19
ical practitioner’’ means a person who is licensed, 20
certified, or otherwise authorized by the laws of a 21
State to administer health care in the ordinary 22
course of the practice of the person’s profession. 23
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SEC. 6. EFFECTIVE DATE. 1
This Act shall take effect on the date of enactment 2
of this Act. 3
Æ 
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