The New Hampshire Senate on Thursday approved a pair of bills that would ban most gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
One of the bills would bar doctors from administering puberty blockers or hormone treatments to patients under 18. Patients already receiving those treatments before Jan. 1, 2026, would be allowed to continue with them, under an amendment added by the Senate.
The other bill would prohibit gender-affirming chest surgeries before age 18.
The bills are part of an increased focus on transgender issues by Republicans in Concord, who last year passed laws barring trans students from girls’ sports and banning gender-affirming genital surgeries.
Most major medical societies in the U.S. – including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics – support access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth. They say those treatments can be critical to trans teens’ mental health, by avoiding the distress of going through puberty in a body that doesn’t match one’s gender identity.
Republican lawmakers, in New Hampshire and nationally, have called those treatments inappropriate for children and questioned their long-term side effects.
“Leave the kids alone and let them develop!” Republican Sen. Kevin Avard of Nashua nearly shouted on the Senate floor Thursday during the vote on one bill. “If they’re 18 or older, then do whatever you want, you’re an adult.”
Avard cited the testimony of some advocates from other states who told New Hampshire lawmakers they had received gender-affirming care and later came to regret it. (Studies indicate regret rates for such care are extremely low.) He said kids who aren’t old enough to legally marry shouldn’t be able to change their bodies with hormones.
“It’s dangerous. It’s reckless. And it’s gross!” Avard added.
Sen. Debra Altschiller, a Stratham Democrat, warned that taking away gender-affirming care could severely harm young people’s mental health.
Doing so does not “erase the identity of transgender youth,” she said. “It simply removes their ability to access safe, evidence-based care. And the consequences of that can be devastating.”
Both bills passed the House earlier this year. Because they were amended by the Senate, they’ll need final approval from the House before they can head to Gov. Kelly Ayotte’s desk.
Ahead of Thursday’s vote, some parents of trans kids anxiously awaited the outcome. Rosie Emrich of Hooksett, whose 9-year-old child started on puberty blockers this year, said these and other bills are making trans people and their families feel less welcome in the state.
Her family, she said, has been following the legislation and “trying to decide if New Hampshire is a place that we can continue to live with our child.”
Jennifer Boisvert of Nashua is also questioning whether New Hampshire is the right place for her family. Her 13-year-old son, Luke, came out as trans when he was 9, and recently received his first dose of testosterone.
“These are hard, hard decisions that I've researched that I've talked to doctors about, that we prepared for years for,” she said. “And for this session of the Legislature to come in and say, ‘Hey, you know, we don't trust you as a parent, we don't trust your providers, and we're going to make decisions we think is better’ – it really is heartbreaking.”
Luke said it’s been hard to go through childhood normally, while politicians debate whether to cut off his access to a medication he counts on.
“It's not something that I should have to deal with,” he said. “I shouldn't have to be so involved in politics and stuff when I'm just like a 13 – almost 14-year-old – kid trying to make friends, go to school and just succeed in the stuff that I want to do.”
