As more states ban gender care for youth, doctors and clinics in Minnesota are building up capacity to help the influx of trans patients who are traveling or moving to the state for care.
Agreeing to an out-of-network doctor's financial policy, which protects their ability to get paid and may be littered with confusing jargon, can create a binding contract that leaves a patient owing.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly also vetoed a measure to require more reporting from abortion providers and what she called a "vague" bill making it a crime to coerce someone into having an abortion.
The state will ban most gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacement therapies for transgender people under 18 with a new bill signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp.
An NPR analysis finds that over the past two years, state lawmakers introduced more than 300 bills targeting trans people. Most of this legislation, 86%, takes aim at the rights of trans youth.
A new study from a Dutch clinic found that 98% of transgender adolescents who received puberty suppression treatment went on to continue gender-affirming treatment.
State lawmakers also passed a separate measure prohibiting early classroom instruction on sexual and gender identity, a bill critics have dubbed "Don't Say Gay."
