JACKSON (LifeSiteNews) — Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves signed a bill on Tuesday that bans doctors from providing “transition” procedures and drugs to minors, including dispensing puberty blockers and performing “sex change” surgeries. 

According to the provisions of the Regulate Experimental Adolescent Procedures Act (REAL Act), doctors who provide someone under the age of 18 with “transition” procedures will be liable to lose their medical license. The law also allows those who received “transitions” to sue the doctors who provided them with drugs or surgeries, with a 30-year statute of limitations. 

There are those attempting to push a sick and twisted ideology that seeks to convince our kids they’re in the wrong body and the solution is to drug, sterilize, and castrate themselves.

To these radical activists I only have one thing to say: Not in Mississippi! pic.twitter.com/XdsGjbb7SC

— Governor Tate Reeves (@tatereeves) February 28, 2023

The law further prohibits the use of government funds and tax deductions to fund any “transition” as well as bars Medicaid from covering “transitions” for those under 18. The law took effect immediately.  

Speaking at a press conference, Reeves, who is up for reelection in November, said, “There’s a dangerous movement spreading across America today … It’s advancing under the guise of a false ideology and pseudoscience being pushed onto our children through radical activists, social media, and online influencers. And it’s trying to convince our children that they are in the wrong body. I stand before you today to sign legislation that puts a stop to this in Mississippi and protects our kids.” 

“This is truly scary stuff that’s being pushed upon our kids and, yes, their loving parents,” Reeves continued. “They’re being taken advantage of, all so some can push their warped view on gender or appear to be ‘woke’ for their friends.” 

Also present at the signing was Daily Wire commentator Matt Walsh, who has vocally advocated against gender ideology by challenging child mutilation throughout his time as a media figure. 

“The reality is that this is not a difficult issue,” Walsh said. “If we lived in a sane society, run by sane people, we would all be able to agree on this point.” 

.@MattWalshBlog gives speech at Mississippi bill signing to ban sex-change procedures for minors: pic.twitter.com/4AWe1UgUPv

— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) February 28, 2023

“These kids are put on so-called puberty blockers to chemically castrate them, and before the age of 18, many will undergo surgery,” Walsh continued. “They cannot consent to it and they cannot understand the long-term effects of it.”  

“They need and deserve to be protected from the child abusing quacks and soulless goblins who wish to exploit their confusion for their own financial gain. That’s why we need this law.” 

Mississippi is not the only Republican-controlled state to pass laws prohibiting the distribution of puberty blockers and sex “change” surgeries for minors.  

This year, both the governors of Utah and South Dakota signed similar laws in their states. Last week, the Tennessee legislature passed bills that would prohibit minors from receiving “transition” procedures as well as bar minors from attending drag shows.  

Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee, speaking last autumn after Walsh uncovered how Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville was mutilating minors with “gender transitions” — something its leaders reportedly viewed as a “huge money maker” — said, “We should not allow permanent, life-altering decisions that hurt children. With the partnership of the General Assembly, this practice should end in Tennessee.”  

Puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are linked to serious and life-threatening side effects, including cardiovascular diseases, stroke, cancer, and fertility problems. Neither type of drug has been approved by the FDA for gender dysphoria or studied in randomized controlled trials or longitudinal studies with gender-confused minors, as LifeSite has reported.

Further, “gender-affirming” surgeries result in permanent mutilation and sterilization, and research shows that people who undergo them have exponentially higher rates of suicide.