Louisiana Republicans vote to override governor’s veto on minor gender surgery ban

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Louisiana’s Republican-majority House voted Tuesday to override the Democrat governor’s veto on a bill that bans sex reassignment surgeries and treatments for minors.

The state House of Representatives voted, 75-23, to override Gov. John Bel Edwards’ veto and reinstate House Bill 648, or the Stop Harming Our Kids Act, which would prohibit doctors in Louisiana from performing gender-reassignment surgeries and prescribing or administering hormones and puberty blockers to minors.

The override needs at least 26 votes in the state Senate to pass.

Left, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards; right, a girl holds a sign among anti-LGBTQ+ demonstrators outside a Glendale Unified School District Board of Education meeting on June 20, 2023, in Glendale, California. (Fox News / File)

Republican state Rep. Gabe Firment, who sponsored the bill, previously described the bill to Fox News Digital as "veto-proof" due to GOP majorities in both chambers.

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"Thanks to the bi-partisan support of the Louisiana State Senate, we are one step closer to protecting children in Louisiana from experimental chemical and surgical sex change procedures. HB648 has passed both chambers of the state legislature with veto-proof majorities, and the people of Louisiana have made it clear that our children are worth fighting for," Firment said in a statement.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards and his wife, Donna, arrive at a state dinner in honor of French President Emmanuel Macron at the White House on Dec. 1, 2022. (AP Photo / Susan Walsh)

Edwards vetoed the bill on June 29, writing in his veto message that the bill tramples on "parental rights" and "denies healthcare to a very small, unique, and vulnerable group of children."

Edwards said sex-change surgeries on minors are not occurring in his state and that the bill is being fueled not by evidence of a growing problem but by "propaganda and misinformation generated by national interest groups."

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Proponents for the veto applauded Edward's failed veto, saying that minors will "be safer now" in the Pelican State.

"Vulnerable children will be safer now in Louisiana," Mark Trammell, executive director of the Center for American Liberty, told Fox News Digital. "Governor Edwards’s failed veto shows that he cares more about appeasing special interest groups than protecting children from medical procedures and drugs that physically mutilate and sterilize."

"The Louisiana legislature did the right thing here and the Center for American Liberty applauds its efforts," Trammell said.

Protesters of Kentucky Senate Bill SB150, known as the Transgender Health Bill, cheer on speakers during a rally on the lawn of the Kentucky capitol in Frankfort on March 29, 2023. (AP Photo / Timothy D. Easley)

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The governor also handed down vetoes on HB 81, which would require educators to use students’ pronouns associated with their sex at birth, and HB 466, which would ban discussions of gender identity and sexual orientation in K-12 classrooms.

The House failed on a 67-29 vote to override Edwards’ veto of HB 81 Tuesday, The Advocate newspaper reported.