Georgia bill would bar tax money from covering transgender surgeries

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A January 5, 2017, view of the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Todd DeFeo/The DeFeo Groupe)

Georgia Sen. Blake Tillery, R-Vidalia, has introduced legislation that would prohibit taxpayer dollars from covering transgender surgeries and gender-affirming care.

Senate Bill 39 would prevent any gender-affirming care procedures, such as hormone therapy or sex reassignment surgeries, from being covered by the state health benefit plan or provided by healthcare facilities or physicians associated with the state.

“It should not fall on the State of Georgia and its taxpayers to fund transgender surgeries,” Tillery said in a statement.

The measure follows Senate Bill 140, enacted by the Georgia General Assembly in 2023, to ban physicians from performing gender transition procedures on minors. The legislation also parallels President Donald Trump’s ban on the Bureau of Prisons from using federal tax dollars from going to gender-affirming care.