Idaho is the latest state to advance an anti-transgender bill targeting gender affirming healthcare.

Earlier this week, the state House overwhelmingly passed HB 71, a trans healthcare ban advocates are calling “one of the most extreme” of its kind. As The Associated Press reported, the legislation would make it a felony offense for healthcare professionals to provide gender affirming hormone therapy, puberty blockers, or surgeries to trans people under the age of 18. (Mind you, gender affirming surgeries are not currently being performed on minors in the state.) It now goes to the state Senate for a final vote.

Republican state Rep. Bruce Skaug claimed HB 71 is necessary to “protect children.” In reality, banning gender affirming care flies in the face of recommendations from virtually every major medical association in the U.S., including the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, and American Academy of Pediatrics.

A substantial body of research — including a New England Journal of Medicine study published in January — suggests access to this care vastly improves mental health outcomes for trans youth. Barring it for trans children and teens in the Gem State will likely do the exact opposite, causing unnecessary harm to a group that is already disproportionately affected by bullying and suicidal ideation.

In a statement to the AP, Rebecca Gibron, CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Indiana, Kentucky, described Idaho’s HB 71 as particularly “extreme.”

“Gender affirming care is time sensitive and life-saving,” Gibron continued. “Patients, families, and health care providers — no one else — should decide what care is in the best interest of transgender youth, in accordance with current medical best practices.”