Kansas bill to limit gender-affirming care for transgender minors dies after failed veto override

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — A proposed ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors in Kansas died Monday when two Republicans switched their votes and prevented the Republican-controlled Legislature from overriding the Democratic governor's veto of the measure.

The Kansas House voted 82-43 to overturn Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a bill that also would have barred state employees who work with children from promoting social transitioning for kids who question or struggle with their gender identities. But supporters were two votes short of the necessary two-thirds majority.

Republicans who backed the bill argued that a ban would protect vulnerable children from what they described as experimental health care that could create long-term health issues. It would not only have banned surgeries for minors but also puberty blockers and hormone treatments. The Senate voted Monday morning 27-13 to override Kelly’s veto, the exact margin supporters needed there.

Since Kelly vetoed the bill earlier this month, its critics have focused on the provision aimed at keeping state workers from advocating for social transitioning, which under the bill included “the changing of an individual’s preferred pronouns or manner of dress." LGBTQ+ rights advocates said it made Kansas' proposed ban more sweeping than other states' laws.

“I can breathe,” Iridescent Riffel, a transgender LGBTQ+ rights activist who worked against the bill, said in an interview after the House vote. “I'm relieved. I know many other families in Kansas are,” the 27-year old from from northeastern Kansas said.

LGBTQ+ rights advocates questioned whether the provision on social transitioning was written broadly enough to apply to public school teachers who show empathy for transgender students. GOP backers rejected that argument, but the bill didn't spell out what constitutes promoting social transitioning.

“I think the fear is the point,” Taryn Jones, vice chair of the LGBTQ+ rights group Equality Kansas said after the House vote. “The people in those professions would be too afraid to do anything that they weren’t supposed to.”

About 300,000 youths ages 13 to 17 identify as transgender in the U.S., according to estimates by the Williams Institute, an LGBTQ+ research center at UCLA Law. It estimates that in Kansas, about 2,100 youths in that age group identify as transgender.

At least 200 Kansas health care providers signed a letter to lawmakers opposing a veto override. Transgender youth and parents of transgender children described gender-affirming care as life-saving and argued that it lessens severe depression and suicidal tendencies. The care also has been endorsed by the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and other major U.S. medical groups.

Republican state Reps. Jesse Borjon, of Topeka, and Susan Concannon, from rural north-central Kansas, said parts of the bill were too vague for them to vote to override Kelly's veto after both voted for the measure last month.

The bill would have given providers until the end of the year to phase out puberty blockers and hormone treatments for existing patients, but Borjon said he was bothered by how the bill wouldn't have allowed those patients to continue their care after that.

In a brief speech explaining her “no” vote, Concannon told fellow House members, “These decisions belong between the team of professionals and the parents.”

“The youth need our help, not government overreach,” she added. “To all who have reached out, I hear you.”

The Kansas measure was part of a broader push to roll back transgender rights from Republican lawmakers in statehouses across the U.S. Kansas would have been the 25th state to restrict or ban such care for minors, and this week, the South Carolina Senate expected to debate a similar measure that already has passed the state House.

Supporters of the Kansas bill repeatedly cited the recent decision of the National Health Service of England to stop covering puberty blockers as a routine treatment for gender dysphoria in minors.

“Unfortunately, in today’s society, the predator in particular is a woke health care system,” said Republican state Sen. Mark Steffen, a central Kansas anesthesiologist and pain management specialist.

Republican lawmakers in Kansas last year enacted laws barring transgender girls and women from female college and K-12 sports teams and ending legal recognition of transgender residents’ gender identities. Transgender residents no longer can change the listing for “sex” on their driver’s licenses or birth certificates to match their gender identities, something Kelly’s administration had allowed.

The Legislature also approved a gender-affirming care ban last year, but Kelly vetoed it, and GOP supporters didn't have enough votes in either chamber to override her action. But support built this year as most previously skeptical Republicans came aboard.

Kansas Senate Health Committee Chair Beverly Gossage, a Kansas City-area Republican, told her colleagues: “We’re on the right side of history on this.”

State Rep. John Eplee, a northeastern Kansas family physician and one-time skeptic of the ban, said people are seeing children start to transition to a gender other than the one assigned at birth “more and more and more.”

“It’s time Kansas said, ‘Enough. We're going to take a break from this,’” Eplee said during the House's debate Monday.

Democrats in both chambers pushed back against such arguments, and in the Senate, Democratic Leader Dinah Sykes urged her colleagues "to show grace and kindness.”

Jenna Bellemere, a 21-year-old transgender University of Kansas student, said after the House vote that she's been frustrated by the efforts to roll back transgender rights and worries that people are becoming “desensitized” to attacks on the transgender community.

“I feel like we should be able to expect better.”

Small transgender rights flags sit on the desk in the Kansas House chamber for Rep. Allison Hougland, D-Olathe, during a break in the House's daylong session, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Hougland, other Democrats, and a few Republicans have prevented the GOP-controlled Legislature from overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas state Rep. Jesse Borjon, R-Topeka, speaks on his phone at his desk in the House chamber during a break in the House's daylong session, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Borjon has switched from voting for a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors to voting against overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of the measure. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas Senate Minority Leader Dinah Sykes, D-Lenexa, speaks against overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Sykes argues that the ban would deny transgender children crucial care that helps lessen severe depression and suicidal tendencies. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas state Sen. Tom Holland, D-Baldwin City, speaks against overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Holland suggested that the ban would send a message that Kansas is not welcoming. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Lobbyists Brittany Jones, left, of the conservative group Kansas Family Voice, and Lucrecia Nold, right, of the Kansas Catholic Conference, watch from the Senate's west gallery as members debate overriding a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Both of their organizations support a ban. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Isaac Johnson, who just completed an internship with Topeka's public schools and is finishing work on a social work degree, talks to reporters during a news conference, Thursday, April 26, 2024, in front of a mural at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Johnson, who is transgender, worries about the effects of a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors, which also would bar state employees from promoting social transitioning for youth. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly speaks at a public event, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Kelly has vetoed a proposed ban on gender-affirming care for minors that also would bar state employees from advocating social transitioning for transgender children. (AP Photo/John Hanna)

Kansas state Sen. Mark Steffen, R-Hutchison, speaks in favor of overriding Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly's veto of a bill banning gender-affirming care for minors, Monday, April 29, 2024, at the Statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Steffen says the state must protect "confused" children from a "confused health care system and confused parents." (AP Photo/John Hanna)

BANSKA BYSTRICA, Slovakia (AP) — Slovak politicians have called for calm in the Central European country after Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot multiple times by a would-be assassin on Wednesday, a rare instance of political violence that came as a shock despite deep political polarization.

Fico was in serious but stable condition Thursday, a hospital official said, after the populist leader was hit multiple times in an attempt on his life that shook the small country and reverberated across the continent weeks before European elections.

A suspect was in custody, and Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said Wednesday that an initial investigation found “a clear political motivation” behind the attack on Fico while he was attending a government meeting in a former coal mining town.

The minister did not specify what the motivation was. Fico has long been a divisive figure in Slovakia and beyond, and his return to power last year on a pro-Russian, anti-American message led to even greater worries among fellow European Union members that he would abandon his country's pro-Western course.

The attempt on Fico’s life Wednesday came at a time of high polarization in Slovakia, as thousands of demonstrators have repeatedly rallied in the capital and around the country to protest his policies. It also comes just ahead of June elections for the European Parliament.

Outgoing President Zuzana Caputova, a political rival of Fico, said Thursday that the heads of the country’s political parties would meet in an effort to bring calm and “refuse violence.”

“We want to call on everyone to to be responsible,” Caputova said at a news conference in the capital Bratislava.

Caputova was speaking alongside Peter Pellegrini, a Fico ally who is Slovakia's president-elect. Their joint message was a gesture toward reducing the inflamed political tensions that have gripped the country in recent months and an appeal to Slovaks not to give in to political divisions.

“This assassination attempt deserves a joint and unequivocal condemnation,” Pellegrini said. “I call on all parties in Slovakia to interrupt or at least significantly reduce their campaign for the European Parliament election, because the campaign is naturally linked to confrontation, and confrontation is the last thing Slovakia needs at the moment.”

Fico's government, elected last September, has halted arms deliveries to Ukraine, and has plans to amend the penal code to eliminate a special anti-graft prosecutor and to take control of public media. His critics worry that he will lead Slovakia — a nation of 5.4 million that belongs to NATO — down a more autocratic path.

Zuzana Eliasova, a resident of the capital Bratislava, said the attack on Fico was a “shock” to the nation and an attack on democracy at a time when political tensions were already running high.

“I believe that a lot of people or even the whole society will look into their conscience, because the polarization here has been huge among all different parts of society," she said.

Doctors performed a five-hour operation on Fico, who was initially reported to be in life-threatening condition, according to director of the F.D. Roosevelt Hospital in Banska Bystrica, Miriam Lapunikova. He is being treated in an intensive care unit.

Five shots were fired outside a cultural center in the town of Handlova, nearly 140 kilometers (85 miles) northeast of the capital, government officials said.

Slovakia's Security Council was set to meet in the capital of Bratislava on Thursday to discuss the situation, a government office said, adding that a government meeting would follow.

Fico returned to power in Slovakia last year, having previously served twice as prime minister. He and his Smer party have most often been described as left-populist, though he has also been compared to politicians on the right like the nationalist prime minister of neighboring Hungary, Viktor Orbán.

Fico’s comeback caused concern among his critics that he and his party — which had long been tainted by scandal — would lead Slovakia away from the Western mainstream. He promised a tough stance against migration and non-governmental organizations and campaigned against LGBTQ+ rights.

Despite the controversy surrounding Fico's leadership, condemnation of the attack came from both his allies and adversaries. On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a message to President Caputova, expressing his support and wishing the prime minister a fast and full recovery.

“This atrocious crime cannot be justified,” Putin said in the message released by the Kremlin. “I know Robert Fico as a courageous and strong-willed person. I truly hope these personal qualities will help him overcome this harsh situation.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also denounced the violence against a neighboring country’s head of government.

“Every effort should be made to ensure that violence does not become the norm in any country, form or sphere,” he said.

Josek and Jenne reported from Bratislava, Slovakia. Associated Press journalists Jan Gebert in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia, and Karel Janicek in Prague contributed.

Police cars are parked outside the F. D. Roosevelt University Hospital, where Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot and injured, is treated in Banska Bystrica, central Slovakia, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting after a political event Wednesday afternoon, according to his Facebook profile.(AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

A police line is placed outside the entrance of the F. D. Roosevelt University Hospital, where Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot and injured, is treated in Banska Bystrica, central Slovakia, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting after a political event Wednesday afternoon, according to his Facebook profile.(AP Photo/Denes Erdos)

Slovakia's prime minister was attacked by an armed assailant and hospitalized Wednesday. (AP Graphic)

Rescue workers wheel Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot and injured, to a hospital in the town of Banska Bystrica, central Slovakia, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. (Jan Kroslak/TASR via AP)

Police arrest a man after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot and injured following the cabinet's away-from-home session in the town of Handlova, Slovakia, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting Wednesday afternoon, according to his Facebook profile. (Radovan Stoklasa/TASR via AP)

Rescue workers wheel Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot and injured, to a hospital in the town of Banska Bystrica, central Slovakia, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting Wednesday afternoon, according to his Facebook profile. (Jan Kroslak/TASR via AP)

Rescue workers take Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot and injured, to a hospital in the town of Banska Bystrica, central Slovakia, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting Wednesday afternoon, according to his Facebook profile. (Jan Kroslak/TASR via AP)

FILE - Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico arrives to a round table meeting at an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Feb. 1, 2024. Media reports say on Wednesday, May 15, 2024 that Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico was injured in a shooting and taken to hospital. (AP Photo/Geert Vanden Wijngaert, File)

Rescue workers wheel Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot and injured, to a hospital in the town of Banska Bystrica, central Slovakia, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Slovakia's populist Prime Minister Robert Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting Wednesday afternoon, according to his Facebook profile. (Jan Kroslak/TASR via AP)

Police arrest a man after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was shot and injured following the cabinet's away-from-home session in the town of Handlova, Slovakia, Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Fico is in life-threatening condition after being wounded in a shooting Wednesday afternoon, according to his Facebook profile. (Radovan Stoklasa/TASR via AP)