INDIANAPOLIS — An Indiana lawmaker wants to change the language in a law passed by legislators last year.
Senate Enrolled Act 480 bans doctors from prescribing hormones and puberty blockers to transgender youth in Indiana. The law also prohibits doctors in Indiana from recommending out of state doctors to families of transgender youth who can provide treatment these families are seeking for their kids.
The law also prohibits Indiana doctors from talking with out of state doctors about the care these out of state doctors are providing to a transgender child. Under the law, those kinds of communications between doctors are considered "aiding or abetting."
Rep. Chris Campbell (D-District 26) said she will propose a bill to remove the "aiding and abetting" language in the current law. She called the language "broad" and said it stops doctors from being on the same page about all the treatments a child is receiving.
On Dec. 17, Campbell announced her decision about proposing changes to SEA480, along with parents of transgender children getting treatment outside of Indiana.
Earlier in December, the United States Supreme Court heard arguments in a case where families in Tennessee are challenging a law similar to the one in Indiana that also bans doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and hormones to transgender minors.
Unlike the Indiana law, the one in Tennessee does not include the "aiding and abetting" language.
"I'm terrified to tell the doctors my daughter is on estrogen," said Beth Clawson, who appeared with her husband during Campbell's announcement.
Clawson and her husband, Nathaniel, have a 12-year-old transgender daughter who has Type 1 diabetes. 13News has spoken with the Clawsons before and listened to their testimony during last year's legislative session against then-Senate Bill 480.
The Clawsons' daughter now goes out of state for care, where a doctor prescribes her estrogen to take. Beth Clawson said the estrogen is affecting how her 12-year-old's body responds to insulin, but because of the aiding or abetting language in Indiana's current law, she's afraid to discuss it with her pediatrician here.
"I really need the doctor's to help me figure out the best way to combat that resistance in her body and it's impossible for me to figure it out by myself, but I don't want to get my doctors in trouble," Clawson said.
"Is it gender-affirming care knowing that she is just on the medicine? Is it gender-affirming care, is it aiding and abetting if they just ignore it and let her be on it? Like, is there a place that they're supposed to note this and if they don't note this are they going to get in trouble," Clawson asked.
"No other kind of medical issue has that kind of ban," said Jessie McCormick Fisk, who also has a transgender daughter.
"Our doctors can't communicate with each other and so it's really upsetting," said McCormick Fisk, who was also part of Tuesday's announcement.
McCormick Fisk said she's taking her daughter out of state to Chicago to receive treatment, but the doctor there wants a letter from her child's therapist saying she understands how puberty blockers could affect her body longer term.
"Talking to therapists here in Indiana, they're afraid to write any kind of letter like that and so we not only have to find a doctor, we have to find a therapist somewhere," said McCormick Fisk, adding she's thankful before SEA480 went into effect, she got her child's medical records from her doctors in Indiana.
McCormick Fisk said she knows other parents of transgender kids who didn't do that and now don't have access to those records and don't know where to turn for help.
"Now there's a struggle of, 'Can I even get the records to give to an out of state doctor? Is that aiding and abetting?' and so that's a tricky grey area that a lot of families are in right now," said McCormick Fisk, adding some parents have developed a network between themselves and seek out contacts for out of state doctors from each other.
That's not the case for all parents.
"I've talked to other parents who don't have that same community," McCormick Fisk said. "They feel lost. Their children feel lost. They don't know if they can't get care in Indiana, they don't know where they can go.
"Not everyone has the means to travel outside the state to get that kind of care."
Campbell said the "aiding or abetting" language undercuts the practice of medicine and puts transgender children's health at risk.
Last session, SB480 had overwhelming support among the Republican supermajority in the legislature. Governor Eric Holcomb signed the bill into law after first calling it "clear as mud."
13News reached out to one of the original bill's authors, State Sen. Tyler Johnson (R-District 14), who sent us the following statement:
"We have the utmost compassion for children suffering with gender dysphoria, and they deserve sensible effective counseling. Gender-related procedures on children are growing at an alarming rate in the United States while other countries are scaling back their use. The Indiana legislature appropriately acted to limit these irreversible and life-altering procedures on children."