Sen. Wiener Drops Bill Banning Some Intersex Surgeries For Children

By CBS San Francisco Staff:

SACRAMENTO (CBS SF/AP) — State Sen. Scott Wiener announced this week he’s withdrawing a bill that bans some medically unnecessary surgeries on intersex children until they are old enough to participate in the decision.

Wiener has tried for three years to ban some types of surgeries on young children born with intersex characteristics. That refers to people with genitalia, chromosomes or reproductive organs that don’t fit typical definitions for male or female bodies, like people born with both ovaries and male genitals or incompletely formed genitals that can be ambiguous.

Often, these irreversible surgeries are performed on infants. Wiener’s bill would have banned some types of these surgeries until a child was 12 years old and could participate in the decision. But Tuesday, Wiener announced the legislation “does not appear to have a viable path forward.”

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