The fate of a bill to fund transgender treatments that permanently destroy the reproductive systems of minors is now in the hands of nine California State Senators.

AB 2218, authored by Assemblyman Miguel Santiago (D) Los Angeles with principal co-author Senator Scott Wiener (D) San Francisco, will be heard before the nine members Senate Health Committee when they return to the capitol at the end of the month.

The bill has already made its way through the Democrat-dominated state Assembly with little debate and approved largely along party lines.

It establishes an “LGBT Transgender Wellness Fund,” to provide grants to nonprofits, hospitals, health care clinics (like Planned Parenthood), and other medical providers to pay for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and mastectomies for minors, as well as cross-sex hormones and “sex-change” operations for adults.

Originally the bill asked for $15 million to start the fund, but that amount was recently removed from the bill text Now the exact figure added to the fund will be decided by the legislature at a later date.

According to Dr. Quentin Van Meter, a board-certified pediatric endocrinologist who testified against AB 2218 in the Assembly Health Committee, studies show children who are treated with cross-sex hormones for their gender confusion have “significant mental health issues,” that remain even after hormone therapy.

Van Meter warned legislators that the state would be sued in the coming years for funding transgender affirming treatments for troubled and vulnerable children because they destroy healthy body tissue, sterilize the recipient, and cause irreversible damage.

Full story at Press California.