'Stop Harming Our Kids Act’ passes Senate with supermajority, heads to governor’s desk

June 5, 2023

By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor

BATON ROUGE, La. (LBM) – The "Stop Harming Our Kids Act," which prevents doctors and therapists from performing irreversible transgender procedures on minors who are incapable of giving informed consent, passed the Louisiana Senate, June 5, by a vote of 29-10 (eclipsing an earlier Senate supermajority), giving it final passage in the legislature and sending it to Gov. John Bel Edwards's desk.

SHOWDOWN

The bill, HB 648, by Rep. Gabe Firment, a deacon with the First Baptist Church, Pollock, now faces a showdown with the governor, who actively lobbied to successfully kill the bill, 5-4, in the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, after the measure had sailed through the House Committee on Health and Welfare, 14-3, and on the House floor, 71-24 (a supermajority).

The 29 favorable votes are a pickup of three supporters since the Senate voted 26-12 (one absence) — a supermajority — on June 1, when the Senate voted to discharge the Senate Committee on Health and Welfare, which had tanked the legislation, and transferred responsibility for hearing the bill to the Senate Committee on Judiciary A, which favorably considered it (4-0, with three Democrats boycotting the vote) on June 2 and sent it back to the Senate for consideration of final passage.

Sen. Stewart Cathey, a member of the First Baptist Church, West Monroe, rescued the bill in the Senate when he moved for the chamber to suspend the rules and move the bill to a different committee during the June 1 session.

Now, HB 648 could be vetoed by Gov. Edwards, which is a possibility given his strongarm effort that initially defeated it. But it is also possible that he does not want to face an override session as the end to his two-term legacy. Consequently, he could choose to let the bill become law without him signing it.