Chloe Cole Act protecting minors from medical transition passes committee, awaits House consideration 

A bill that would protect children from medical sex transitions and provide a legal avenue for those harmed by the procedures passed the House Judiciary Committee along party lines Wednesday.

“It is unacceptable that politics and ideology have been allowed to override sound medical judgment, leaving vulnerable children to undergo irreversible procedures without a comprehensive psychological evaluation, treatment of underlying mental health conditions or truly informed parental consent,” Rep. Bob Onder, R-Missouri, who introduced the bill, said in a statement to Independent Women’s Voice.

“Children deserve medical care grounded in scientific evidence, not experimental interventions driven by biased agendas,” he added.

Onder practiced medicine in the St. Louis area for more than 30 years. He first introduced the Chloe Cole Act, named for prominent detransitioner Chloe Cole, in September and reintroduced it in February. 

“We are one step closer to ensuring children in ALL of the United States are protected from transgender medical experimentation!” Cole said Wednesday in an X post thanking Onder after the bill passed committee.

Cole, who turns 22 this month, underwent a mastectomy at age 15 and later said the surgery and sex-change drugs brought physical pain and psychological struggles rather than the happiness and confidence physicians had promised.

“The girl who has her breasts removed will never be able to breastfeed her children,” Onder said during an earlier hearing on the bill.

He testified that research shows medical sex-transition interventions, such as puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones, can result in bone fragility, infertility and cardiovascular problems, among other effects. He also said girls who undergo these medical interventions are more than twice as likely as their female peers to experience mental health complications, while boys who undergo them are six times more likely to face mental health struggles.

“The idea of giving puberty blockers to prepubescent children is to stop puberty,” Onder said during this week’s committee hearing. “By the way, these are the same drugs that courts have ruled are not constitutional; that they are cruel and unusual punishment for rapists.”

The bill would hold clinics and hospitals accountable and give victims “adequate time to seek justice,” Onder said.

“For too long the scandal of sex-rejecting procedures on minors has proliferated to an alarming degree through misinformation and pseudoscience. These interventions carry significant risks, cause great harms and often do irreversible damage,” Do No Harm Chief Medical Officer Kurt Miceli said in a press release.

“Passing the Chloe Cole Act will not only establish a strong deterrent against sex-rejecting procedures in minors by exposing harmful actors to real legal accountability but also mark a meaningful step toward justice for those harmed by the child sex-change industry,” he continued.

The bill passed the House Judiciary Committee in a 15-8 party-line vote. It will likely next go to the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee, which will determine whether and when it advances to the House floor, according to The Washington Stand.

“As a member of Congress, a physician, a parent and a concerned American, I am committed to safeguarding the health and well-being of America’s youth,” Onder said Wednesday in an X post. “For Chloe. For all detransitioners who have bravely shared their stories. For the children this legislation will protect in the future. For common sense.”