House lawmakers narrowly approved a bill Wednesday to criminalize transgender treatments such as surgeries and hormonal therapies on minors, with exceptions for rare medical conditions.
The Protect Children’s Innocence Act, which imposes penalties of fines and up to 10 years in prison against violators, cleared the lower chamber in a 216 to 211 vote.
“Protecting children is not optional, it’s our duty,” retiring firebrand Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) declared ahead of the vote.
“Children are not old enough to vote, drive, or get a tattoo and they are certainly not old enough to be chemically castrated or permanently mutilated,” she added. “This is common sense. This is good vs. evil.”
Under the law, doctors can be charged with a federal crime if they attempt to provide hormonal treatments or surgical interventions on children to make their gender differ from their biological sex.
Children who go through so-called gender affirming care cannot be arrested under the bill.
Greene was joined by 45 House Republicans who sponsored the bill.
Three Democrats — Reps. Vicente Gonzales (D-Texas), Don Davis (D-NC), and Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) — voted in favor of it. While four Republicans — Reps. Mike Kennedy (R-Utah), Brian Fitzpatrick ( R-Pa.), Gabe Evans (R-Colo.), and Mike Lawler (R-NY) — opposed it.
“If a child believes they’re a unicorn, do adults take their word for it as well?” Greene asked on the House floor ahead of the vote.
Greene is set to formally resign from the House on Jan. 5, 2026.
Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the first openly transgender person elected to the House, passionately opposed the bill, recounting how she wished she had undergone transgender treatment as a child.
“I was a kid once. And my biggest regret in life is that I never got a childhood without pain,” McBride said.
“Politicians should never insert themselves into the personal health care decisions of patients, parents, and their providers — and that includes trans Americans.”
Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC), who raised concerns after last year’s election that McBride might join her in the women’s bathroom or other female-only facilities, railed against critics of the bill.
“It is obscene. It is disgusting. You’re seeing in real time Democrats wanting and defending grooming of children. And it is abhorrent,” Mace fumed.
“There is a lie at the heart of the debate we’re having today that I have to correct — no child is born in the wrong body. There are only two sexes, male and female. There are no others.”
The Protect Children’s Innocence Act likely faces an uphill battle in the Senate due to the 60-vote filibuster.
At least 26 states have some type of law on the books restricting doctors from prescribing hormone therapy or performing gender transition surgeries on minors.
Back in June, the Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law restricting doctors from giving minors puberty blockers or hormonal treatment to address gender dysphoria.
