The bills would prohibit doctors from providing gender-affirming care to children, ban transgender girls from girls' sports and legally define sex as the sex a person is assigned at birth.
The Republican-dominated Kansas Legislature on Thursday approved a group of bills targeting transgender people and gender-affirming health care.
The GOP-backed bills will likely be vetoed by Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly should they make it to her desk. That would set up a political fight to override her opposition later in the session. In all three votes, the lawmakers came close to — but did not not surpass — the two-thirds majority needed to override Kelly.
Two bills approved by the Senate would ban doctors from providing gender-affirming care to children and create the so-called “women’s bill of rights” that legally defines a person’s sex as the sex they were assigned at birth. The senators voted 26-11 and 26-10, respectively. The bills now head to the House for consideration.