The day after a youth transgender bill advanced out of the Georgia House Public Health committee she chairs, State Rep. Sharon Cooper of East Cobb was excused from casting a floor vote on Thursday.
Along party lines, the Republican-led House voted 96-75 to pass SB 140, which would bar most medical procedures for transgender-identified minors and would strip the medical licenses of doctors who perform them.
Cooper, a Republican from District 45, was one of seven House members listed as having been excused from voting.
The bill that passed the Senate earlier in the session prohibits medical professionals from prescribing hormone-replacement therapy or performing surgery to alter sexual characteristics on minors under the age of 18.
The bill does allow for some gender-related treatment pertaining to intersex youths and those with other sexual developmental disorders, and permits transgender minors to take puberty blockers.
Minors undergoing hormone treatment by July 1 would be allowed to continue doing so under the bill.
The House committee amended the bill to allow doctors to be held criminally and civilly liable as well for violating provisions of the bill. The amended measure must be voted on by the Senate before the legislative session ends March 29.
East Cobb Republican House members John Carson (District 46) and Don Parsons (District 44) voted in favor of the bill, while Democrats Mary Frances Williams (District 34) and Solomon Adesanya (District 43) were opposed.
Those votes followed the partisan lines of the bill in the Senate, where East Cobb-area senators Kay Kirkpatrick (District 32) and John Albers (District 56) were co-sponsors and voted in favor.
State Sen. Jason Esteves, a Democrat from District 6, which includes some of East Cobb, voted against the bill.
East Cobb News has left a message with Cooper seeking comment.
According to House rules, all members “shall vote unless the member is immediately and particularly interested therein or unless the member is excused by the House.”
A member who wishes to be excused from voting must do so before the question is called to vote.
In 2019, Cooper, a retired nurse, voted against final passage of a law criminalizing abortion after six weeks, saying she opposed provisions to punish medical professionals. (Kirkpatrick, a retired orthopedic surgeon, also opposed that bill and was excused from voting to attend a funeral out of state.)
Testimony at a Wednesday House committee about the youth transgender bill got highly emotional on both sides. Teens and opponents were begging lawmakers to let children and their families make their own medical decisions and to follow the recommendations of care from professional medical associations.
Supporters of the bill said children need to be protected from the effects of irreversible medical procedures, especially if they change their minds about their gender identities as adults.
The substitute bill was favorably passed out of committee in a 12-10 vote, and Cooper admitted that there would be a lot of “soul searching” from committee members.
“I only wish there was an accompanying bill, if this one should pass, that says that we will always also stand behind transgender people and transgender children and not let you be discriminated against going forward,” she said before the vote.
After the vote, according to the Georgia Recorder, Cooper was seen embracing the tearful mother of a transgender child.
Related:
- Cobb commission redistricting bill dies in Ga. Senate
- East Cobb resident, commissioner, file redistricting lawsuit
- East Cobb resident files ethics complaint against Richardson
- Cobb Republican commissioners vote, contest meeting minutes
- Ga. Attorney General: Cobb electoral maps are ‘not legally binding’
- Cobb Republican commissioners leave meeting over abstentions
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