Protect Children’s Innocence Act

What this does

This bill rewrites the federal crime at Section 116 of title 18 to make it a felony to perform gender-transition surgeries or administer transition-related drugs to anyone under 18. It sets a penalty of a fine, up to 10 years in prison, or both for knowingly performing genital or bodily mutilation on a minor, for chemically castrating a minor, or for facilitating, consenting to, or transporting a minor for female genital mutilation. The offense reaches conduct connected to interstate or foreign commerce, including travel, payments, communications, or instruments that crossed state lines. The bill defines genital or bodily mutilation to include female genital mutilation and, separately, a list of surgeries performed to change a person's body to a sex differing from their biological sex, such as castration, hysterectomy, mastectomy, phalloplasty, and vaginoplasty, along with feminizing or masculinizing facial surgery and chest or gluteal implants for those purposes. It defines chemical castration to include puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex testosterone given to biological females, and cross-sex estrogen given to biological males. The minor who receives the procedure may not be arrested or prosecuted. Exceptions cover care necessary to a minor's physical health, births, and specified intersex or precocious-puberty conditions, and the bill states that a minor's health does not include mental, behavioral, or emotional distress or disorder.