Florida Board of Medicine set to discuss new rules regarding transgender care

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Carrying out a new law, a joint panel of the Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine is slated next week to discuss rules about treatments for transgender minors and adults.

The Joint Rules and Legislative Committee of the medical boards will meet Thursday in Tampa.

The Republican-controlled Legislature and Gov. Ron DeSantis this month approved a law (SB 254) that bars doctors from providing treatments such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to transgender minors.

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The law included an exception for minors who had already started the treatments, but it required the Board of Medicine and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine to approve emergency rules that would spell out standards for the care.

The law also created a new requirement for doctors to get “informed consent” before providing treatments to transgender adults.

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An agenda for Thursday’s meeting indicates the joint committee will take up those issues.

At the urging of the DeSantis administration, the Board of Medicine and the Board of Osteopathic Medicine approved rules that took effect in March preventing doctors from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy and certain surgical procedures to transgender minors.

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The legislation that passed this month went further by putting the ban in law.

The new law and the medical board rules have been challenged in federal court.

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