Kansas lawmakers are poised next week to override Gov. Laura Kelly’s (D-KS) veto of a bill that would prohibit transgender medical treatments for minors.
On Tuesday, Kelly vetoed the Help Not Harm Act, which passed overwhelmingly in both the Senate and the House, with only one vote shy of a two-thirds majority in the lower chamber.
A spokesperson for Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson, a Republican, confirmed to the Washington Examiner that an override vote on the bill would take place early next week to ensure that all members of the majority party were present.
The bill would prohibit the prescription of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria, the psychological distress when biological sex and gender identification are incongruous.
The bill also prohibits the use of taxpayer funds for the promotion of so-called “gender-affirming care” and opens civil litigation avenues against doctors who provide such services.
Kelly vetoed a similar bill last year, but Republicans were unable to coordinate enough supporters to overcome the two-thirds majority requirement.
In her veto message, Kelly said that it was “disappointing” that the Kansas legislature is attempting to infringe on “Kansans’ private medical decisions instead of focusing on issues that improve all Kansans’ lives.”
“Right now, the Legislature should be focused on ways to help Kansans cope with rising prices. That is the most important issue for Kansans,” Kelly said.
Kelly is the third governor, after former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson and Gov. Mike DeWine (R-OH), to veto a bill meant to limit access to transgender medical treatments for minors. Those vetos were overridden in both instances.
Masterson said in a statement shortly after Kelly’s move on Tuesday that the state Senate “will swiftly override her veto before the ink from her pen is dry.”
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“The governor’s devotion to extreme left-wing ideology knows no bounds, vetoing a bipartisan bill that prevents the mutilation of minors,” Masterson said Tuesday.
Kansas House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Republican, did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment at the time of publication.