DeSantis sees Florida’s anti-trans law mirrored in SC Legislature’s surgery ban proposal

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, fresh off of his second place finish in the Iowa Caucus, continued his attacks on South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and complimented the work taking place in the state Legislature to prevent gender transition surgeries for minors.

Before heading to New Hampshire, DeSantis made two campaign stops in South Carolina on Tuesday, the first in Greenville and the second in Columbia for a news conference at the State House, where lawmakers in the House plan to take up a bill to ban transition surgeries for minors, under the “Help not Harm” bill.

“You can’t take your kid and get a 12-year-old a tattoo. You can’t take a 13 year old and sit him at the bar and do liquor shots,” DeSantis said. “There are just certain things that of course are not appropriate for minors. And this is one of them.”

However, no doctors in the state perform gender-transition surgeries on minors, according to 2023 testimony at the State House by pediatricians.

DeSantis used the visit to take a shot at Haley and former President Donald Trump, who won the Iowa Caucus.

“I just find it crazy that I seem to be the only Republican presidential candidate that could give a straightforward answer to the question of ‘can a man become a woman?’ And so that question is no,” DeSantis said. “Donald Trump has hemmed and hawed about it. Nikki Haley gave a ridiculous word salad ... two days ago, when she was asked about that.”

But he also spoke in favor of parental rights when it comes to choosing what books their children could read. Republican lawmakers in the House are pushing legislation to create a rating system for books in public school libraries, much like the rating system for movies.

“When you see South Carolina legislators standing for parental rights, making sure the education and the curriculum is free of a lot of the madness that’s been put in, but also addressing this idea of the surgeries for the minors. This is something that Florida initially went through our medical board to stop and then we did it in statute,” DeSantis said. “I think what they’re doing is right. They have my support.”

State Sen. Josh Kimbrell, R-Spartanburg, who traveled to Iowa to campaign for DeSantis, said the Florida governor has had influence on Palmetto State policies, citing the tax cut that was passed in South Carolina in 2022, the certificate of need repeal for medical facilities, a push to ban environmental, social and corporate governance in state investments, and the push to ban gender transition surgery for minors.

“South Carolina is a redder state today because of the work Ron DeSantis did in Florida than the work Nikki Haley did in South Carolina,” Kimbrell said. “All of these things are made possible by the work that was done by Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida.”