New Hampshire becomes first state in New England to ban gender-affirming care for minors

Boston Globe – Friday, August 1, 2025
By Amanda Gokee

New Hampshire has become the first state in New England to ban gender-affirming care medication for minors after Governor Kelly Ayotte signed House Bill 377 into law on Friday.

The new law prohibits health care providers from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy for people under 18 when the medications are used by transgender youth as part of a gender transition.

The new law includes an exception so young people who are already accessing these treatments can continue to do so after the ban goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2026.

“Medical decisions made at a young age can carry lifelong consequences, and these bills represent a balanced, bipartisan effort to protect children,” said Ayotte in a statement.

Votes for the bill in both the House and the Senate largely fell along party lines, with Republicans supporting the legislation and Democrats opposed to it.

Proponents have said the ban is an important way of protecting children from treatments they believe to be harmful and irreversible. But opponents say the new law discriminates against transgender youth, removing treatments they view as life saving, and interfering with doctors’ ability to make appropriate medical decisions with families.

“These laws are merciless, cruel, and painful for transgender young people, their families, and their doctors,” said Courtney Reed, policy advocate at the American Civil Liberties Union of New Hampshire, in a statement after the bills were signed into law.

She said the ACLU will continue fighting “to ensure all people have the dignity and equality they deserve and the freedom to shape their own futures.”

The new law also allows someone who was harmed by receiving this care to bring a lawsuit against the person who provided the care in violation of the law. Violations will go before New Hampshire’s board of medicine, which can take administrative disciplinary action.

The new ban comes as legislative efforts targeting transgender people have grown in recent years. Last year, New Hampshire lawmakers passed a bill banning gender-affirming genital surgeries for minors, even though providers have said such procedures are exceedingly rare in New Hampshire.

The Trump administration has also focused on restricting gender-affirming care for minors around the country.

The Justice Department has sent subpoenas to doctors and clinics that perform transgender medical procedures on minors, in a move to stop the treatments, The New York Times reported.

Even hospitals in blue states like California have limited gender-affirming care, facing the threat of losing federal funding. Clinics around the country that provide gender-affirming care have announced closures.

Some New Hampshire families with transgender children have been warily watching as the bill advanced and, in some cases, have been preparing to move if it becomes law. All of the other New England states have laws protecting access to gender-affirming care, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a Colorado-based think tank that promotes equality.

Republican lawmakers in New Hampshire who championed the ban were encouraged by a US Supreme Court decision in June, which upheld a similar ban on gender-affirming care in Tennessee.

Some New Hampshire Democrats denounced the newly signed laws on Friday.

“These bills don’t protect anyone, they criminalize essential medical care, attack families, and dangerously undermine parental rights,” said Deputy House Democratic Leader Laura Telerski of Nashua.

But some attorneys say there are still avenues for pursuing a possible legal challenge of New Hampshire’s new law. That could include a challenge based on the New Hampshire constitution, arguing that the intent of the law was to harm transgender people, or a challenge on the basis of parental rights, according to Chris Erchull, a senior staff attorney at GLAD Law.

“HB 377 epitomizes extreme government overreach into the private lives and personal decisions of New Hampshire families‚” Erchull said after the bill was signed.

He said GLAD Law will use every legal tool available to ensure transgender residents of New Hampshire can live without “government intrusion.”

Ayotte also signed a second bill banning gender-affirming surgeries for minors. House Bill 712 restricts breast surgeries for minors so they would only be allowed to treat malignancy, injury, infection, or malformation, or for reconstructive surgery after one of those procedures.

The bill explicitly prohibits “transgender chest surgery” for minors as part of a gender transition.

Violating the law is classified as unprofessional conduct and would be subject to discipline by the board of medicine.

The law also allows minors to sue for damages if they received such a treatment in violation of the law. And the attorney general can bring a suit to enforce compliance with the law.

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