JEFFERSON CITY — Missouri state senators on Wednesday voted to make permanent restrictions on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors.
The 22-8 vote came as the Republican-controlled chamber was weighing unrelated legislation to get rid of two other expiration dates in state law.
After approving the amendment, senators attached five more amendments to the measure. The Senate adjourned for the night without voting on the underlying legislation.
Missouri’s current law, which prevents minors from accessing cross-sex hormones or puberty blockers for gender transition, was approved in 2023.
As a concession to Democrats at the time, the law is set to expire in August 2027. The Republican-backed proposal gets rid of the expiration date.
The vote Wednesday marked a step forward for the plan to make the health care restrictions permanent. But the underlying bill still needs initial and final Senate approval before moving to the House for consideration.
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Whether puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors should be allowed has been the subject of intense debate in the Legislature for years.
A House committee earlier this week considered bills that would do away with the expiration date on health care restrictions, as well as a separate bill making limits on transgender athletes permanent.
On Wednesday, senators were debating legislation by state Sen. Lincoln Hough, R-Springfield, that would remove the 2029 expiration date on a health care provider tax known as the Federal Reimbursement Allowance, which helps fund the state’s Medicaid program.Â
His bill would also allow local governments to use two different bidding methods for certain construction projects beyond 2026.
The extension of the FRA proved controversial last legislative session. Members of the Senate Freedom Caucus including Sen. Rick Brattin, R-Harrisonville, held up renewal of the tax to extract votes on measures to defund Planned Parenthood and make the constitution harder to amend.
Brattin on Wednesday proposed tacking on the provision that would do away with the expiration date on the health care restrictions for transgender minors.
Hough said he was caught off-guard by Brattin’s amendment.
“I didn’t know he was gonna do that,†Hough said.
The legislation is .
The Rev. Mitch Doyen, pastor of St. Josephine Bakhita parish, testified before the Missouri House Emerging Issues committee on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. 'I am not afraid to image a world more profound than male or female," he said. Video provided; edited by Beth O'Malley
Guillermo Villa Trueba, a lobbyist with the Missouri Catholic Conference, testified before a Missouri House committee on Monday, Feb. 3, 2025, in support of bills that would remove an expiration date on the gender-affirming-care ban and further restrict people under 18 from continuing the prescriptions issued prior to the 2023 law. Video provided by the House; edited by Beth O'Malley
