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Legislator blocks bill on protecting children’s sexual health

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parents-rghts-in-education [5]Oregon Legislator Blocks Hearing On Bill Which Would Protect Oregon Children’s Sexual Health
Parents Rights in Education [6]

On January 27, 2016 Oregon State Representative Mitch Greenlick, Chair of the House Committee On Health Care blocked the scheduling of a hearing for Oregon 2016 House Bill 4061 which would have prohibited the Oregon Health Authority from providing medical assistance coverage of specified treatments for gender dysphoria in recipients younger than eighteen years of age; treatments such as sex reassignment surgery, cross-sex hormone therapy and puberty suppression therapy (puberty blockers).

The Health Evidence Review Committee (HERC) decision of August 2014 gave Oregon children as young as fifteen access to sex change therapy and surgery without parental knowledge or consent. This committee decision received state and national attention which led to Oregon State Representative Carl Wilson’s recent attempt to rescind this unprecedented HERC decision.

Oregonians want an explanation beyond Representative Greenlick’s January 27, 2016 statement in which he says, “it is much too controversial to hear in the short session”. Many believe that the dramatic implications surrounding potentially life altering medical decisions made by minors are worthy of robust debate by our legislators.

This bill is sponsored by ten other Oregon legislators, eight Representatives and three Senators.