In the 2023 legislative session, North Carolina legislative leadership has filed ELEVEN bills specifically targeting LGBTQ+ people, especially transgender and gender-expansive youth, their supporters, and their providers. Most of these bills restrict our ability, as health care professionals, to provide gender-affirming, life-saving care, which is accepted as best practice by every major medical and mental health professional organization. These legislators are also attempting to push and expand "rights of conscience" legislation under the guise of protecting us as providers. We reject political intrusion and the politicalization of our profession.

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Open Letter from North Carolina Health Care Professionals to the North Carolina General Assembly

As North Carolina health care professionals deeply committed to protecting our patients and preserving the trusting and informed relationship between patient and provider, we adamantly oppose any bans or restrictions on access to and provision of life-saving, gender-affirming care.   

Every major medical association in the United States, including but not limited to, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Endocrine Society, and the American Medical Association, recognizes the medical necessity of gender-affirming care for improving the physical and mental health of transgender and gender-diverse people. Evidence supports the positive effects on children who are able to access gender-affirming care, such as improved body satisfaction, self-esteem, mental health, and relationships with parents and peers.  

The North Carolina legislature is attempting to, both, forbid medical professionals from providing life-saving, gender-affirming care and use the guise of protecting providers to push so-called “rights of conscience” legislation - protections already available through federal law.

Any legislation restricting or banning life-saving care represents dangerous governmental intrusion into the practice of medicine and will be detrimental to the health of transgender and gender-diverse North Carolinians, including youth. The decision of whether and when to seek gender-affirming care, which can include mental and physical health interventions, is personal and involves careful consideration by each patient and their family, along with guidance from their medical providers. These decisions should not be made by politicians or the government. This extreme intrusion will not only disrupt the patient-provider relationship, but will discourage talented health care providers from staying and providing all manner of health care within North Carolina.

When faced with attempts to politicize the medical profession through misinformation and government overreach, we as providers will align ourselves with medical best practice, with our patients as required by our professional ethical standards and duty to patients, and with our own consciences.