West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice signed HB2007, banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors

On March 29, 2023, West Virginia Republican Gov. Jim Justice signed House Bill 2007 into law, prohibiting physicians from providing "irreversible gender reassignment surgery" or "gender altering medication" — including puberty blockers and supraphysiologic doses of testosterone or estrogen — to anyone under 18 for the purpose of gender transition. In signing the measure, West Virginia joined at least ten other states that had enacted laws restricting or outlawing medically supported treatments for transgender youth.

Unlike bans passed in several other states, the West Virginia law contained a unique exception: a physician could prescribe puberty blockers or hormone therapy to a minor diagnosed with severe gender dysphoria by two providers, including a mental-health provider, with parental consent, where the minor was assessed to be at risk of self-harm or suicide. The statute also carved out treatment for intersex or disorder-of-sexual-development diagnoses, complications of prior care, and life-threatening conditions. The law was set to take effect in January 2024.

Every major U.S. medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association, supports gender-affirming care for youth. State data cited at the time indicated that transgender youth in West Virginia experienced rates of suicidal ideation roughly three times higher than the overall youth population.

Updates

2025-04-30 — West Virginia narrowed the law's medical exception [4]

In April 2025, the West Virginia Legislature passed and Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed measures amending HB2007, including Senate Bill 299, which eliminated the suicide-risk exception permitting hormone therapy and puberty blockers for at-risk transgender minors, converting the 2023 restriction into a near-total ban. Those 2025 amendments are recorded as separate entries.