Debate over transgender health care threatens to upend Missouri legislative session
Lawmakers return to the Missouri Capitol Monday to kick off the second half of the 2023 legislative session with a laundry list of priorities and a constitutional deadline to get them done.
Legalizing sports betting, changing the initiative petition process, education policy shifts, tax cuts, banning foreign land ownership, expanding postpartum health care and a litany of other high-profile issues are jockeying for position — all while legislators wrestle with what will be the largest state budget in Missouri’s history.
But hovering in the background is a specter that has haunted the General Assembly for the last two years and threatens to once again upend the legislative process.
GOP infighting in the Missouri Senate has largely subsided this year, save for a pair of flare ups just before last week’s spring break.
But that uneasy truce is teetering.
A group of eight Republican senators are vowing to “use whatever tools and procedures necessary under the Missouri Senate rules” to force a vote on legislation banning certain medical procedures — such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy — for transgender Missourians under the age of 18.
https://www.newsfromthestates.com/article/debate-over-transgender-health-care-threatens-upend-missouri-legislative-session
