Both the Kansas House and Senate passed a bill banning sex change hormones and puberty blockers for minors on Wednesday — but Democrat Governor Laura Kelly is expected to veto it.
The legislature passed a similar bill last year, which Kelly also vetoed.
Despite a Republican supermajority, the legislature failed to override Kelly’s veto on that bill and one that would have protected girls’ sports by barring biological males from competing against them.
The Hill reports:
The state Senate on Wednesday passed this year’s bill, Senate Bill 233, with a veto-proof majority, while the House, which advanced the measure in an 82-39 party-line vote, fell slightly short. Two House Republicans that were absent for Wednesday’s vote — state Reps. Michael Houser and Samantha Poetter Parshall — have previously voted in favor of the legislation and would give the House the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto.
If Republicans succeed in overriding a likely veto from Kelly, Kansas will be the 25th state to ban gender-affirming care for minors, and the third to do so this year. Laws restricting access to care in at least four states are not currently being enforced because they are tied up in the courts.
“Today, the Senate took a firm stand in support of helping and not harming children by making it clear that radical transgender ideology and the mutilation of minors is not legal nor welcome in Kansas,” state Senate President Ty Masterson said in a statement after the vote.
It remains unclear if the Republicans can rally enough votes to override another veto.
