Policy / Support Proposals to Ban Harmful “Gender Transition” Surgeries and Procedures

Support Proposals to Ban Harmful “Gender Transition” Surgeries and Procedures

Southern Baptists have resolved that efforts to “gender transition” conflict with God’s good design and impede human flourishing. The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 affirms that God “created [mankind] male and female as the crowning work of his creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation.”

In recent years, there has been an alarming increase in the number of individuals, many of whom are minors, undergoing physically damaging “gender transition” surgeries and procedures. In addition to going against God’s good design for sex and gender, these surgeries and procedures flaunt sound medical practice and do lasting harm to their victims. Though many states have taken action to ban these procedures, it remains legal and widely available in much of the country.

Southern Baptists are firmly opposed to such “gender transitions” and the pervasive gender ideology promoting them. In the 2023 resolution “On Opposing Gender Transitions,” Southern Baptists resolved to condemn corporate medical providers that exploit minors through “gender transitions” and called on legislators to reverse and otherwise prevent “gender transitions” from being enabled or permitted to take place. Additionally, Southern Baptists affirmed a desire to defend “the free speech and conscience rights of religious believers from governmental efforts to coerce them into endorsing gender ideology.”

Southern Baptists have recognized that those seeking to “transition” are victims of the outworkings of the sexual revolution who are in desperate need of the gospel. The 2023 resolution goes on to say that Southern Baptists desire to “extend the love of Christ, who can save anyone who would call on His name” to those victims of “gender transitions” and provide them with “compassionate care and tender mercy.”

The ERLC is advocating for these procedures to be banned for minors. In 2025, the Supreme Court upheld states’ abilities to ban “gender transition” drugs and procedures for minors in U.S. v. Skrmetti, a case the ERLC urged the court to resolve. With this legal grounding, the ERLC is now urging Congress to take action to protect children nationwide from the harmful and irreversible effects of mutilating drugs and procedures.

The ERLC calls on Congress to pass the Choe Cole Act. The bill regulates the “gender transition” market to prohibit any communications, drugs, medical equipment, or otherwise from being used to perform a “gender transition” on a minor. Congress has the constitutional power to enforce this law under the interstate commerce clause. Additionally, the ERLC urges Congress to pass legislation like the Protecting Minors from Medical Malpractice Act to provide conscience protections for medical providers and ensure parents and children affected by “gender transition” surgeries and procedures have a private right of action.