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HB612
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
H.B. NO.
612
THIRTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2025
STATE OF HAWAII
A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating
to health
.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
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SECTION
1.
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The legislature finds that persons
born with variations in their physical sex characteristics in the United States
are subject to medical practices that can inflict irreversible physical and
psychological harm on them starting in infancy, harms that can last throughout
their lives.
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Many of these procedures
are done with the stated aim of making it easier for children to grow up "normal"
and integrate more easily into society by helping them conform to a particular
sex assignment.
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The results are often
catastrophic as the supposed benefits are largely unproven, and there are
generally no urgent health considerations at stake.
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The
legislature further finds that persons with variations in their physical sex
characteristics, many of whom identify with the term "intersex", are
subjected to nonemergency surgeries and justified by generalized assumptions
about people's preferences about their bodies' appearance and function.
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These assumptions perpetuate gender
stereotypes and may not reflect an individual's actual preferences when the
individual is capable of articulating the individual's wishes.
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The
legislature recognizes that leading pediatric hospitals have begun to institute
partial bans on these surgeries on patients who are too young to participate in
a meaningful discussion of the implications of these surgeries.
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The
legislature also recognizes the importance of ensuring the bodily autonomy of persons
in Hawaii, including those who are trans or gender nonconforming and are born
with variations in their sex characteristics.
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The
legislature hereby finds and declares that the State has a compelling interest
in protecting the physical and psychological well-being of children, including
those born with variations in their physical sex characteristics.
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The enactment of legislation is necessary to
safeguard the bodily autonomy of people born with variations in their physical
sex characteristics and to ensure patient-centered care that conforms with best
practices in the medical profession.
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Accordingly,
the purpose of this Act is to prohibit the performance of certain procedures on
individuals born with variations in their physical sex characteristics who are
under one year of age, unless the procedure is a surgery required to address an
immediate risk of physical harm.
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SECTION
2.
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Chapter 453, Hawaii Revised Statutes,
is amended by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to read
as follows:
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�453-
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Prohibited procedures on infants.
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(a)
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No physician or surgeon shall authorize or
perform the following procedures on an individual born with variations in the
individual's physical sex characteristics who is under one year of age, unless
the procedure is a surgery required to address an immediate risk of physical
harm:
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(1)
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Clitoroplasty, clitoral reduction, and
clitoral recession, including corporal-sparing procedures;
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(2)
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Gonadectomy;
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(3)
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Any procedure that lengthens or reroutes a
urethra from its native orifice; or
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(4)
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Vaginoplasty, urogenital sinus
mobilization, and vaginal exteriorization.
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(b)
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As used in this section:
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"Individual born with variations in
the individual's physical sex characteristics" means an individual born
with physical traits, including genitals, gonads, hormone function, or
chromosomal patterns, that vary from stereotypical notions regarding the
development, appearance, or function of sex characteristics, including those
variations resulting from androgen insensitivity syndrome and congenital
adrenal hyperplasia.
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"Surgery
required to address an immediate risk of physical harm" means any of the
following:
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(1)
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Surgery to remove tissue that poses a
significant heightened clinical risk of malignancy relative to that of the
general population;
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(2)
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Surgery to allow urine to exit the body, to
treat urinary incontinence, or to make a minimally invasive adjustment to
urinary function in order to decrease a risk of infection or renal complication
in a patient whose current urinary function puts them at a demonstrated clinical
risk of infection or renal complication;
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(3)
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Surgery that is required to treat
complications of a previous surgery and cannot be delayed without increasing
physical health risks to the patient; and
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(4)
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Any other surgery necessary to preserve
life in the event of a medical emergency.
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SECTION
3.
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New statutory material is
underscored.
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SECTION 4.
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This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2025.
INTRODUCED BY:
_____________________________
Report Title:
Prohibition;
Procedures; Individuals Born with Variations in Physical Sex Characteristics;
Infants
Description:
Prohibits
physicians and surgeons from performing certain procedures on individuals born
with variations in their physical sex characteristics who are under one year of
age, unless the procedure is a surgery required to address an immediate risk of
physical harm.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.