Bills across the country are targeting transgender adults and their access to gender affirming care.

In Spero’s home state of Florida, adults are banned from using Medicaid to receive gender-affirming care.

Some states have gone further.

In Oklahoma, a proposed bill would make it a felony for anyone under the age of 26 to access gender-affirming care in the state.

“I think making a decision to permanently alter your body to remove a healthy body part is much more serious than buying a beer,” said Peake, a Republican.

He later continued, “There have been a lot of people who have come out who have had these surgeries and have indicated that they regret it.”

Research shows that rates of regret for gender-affirming procedures are extremely low — estimates are around 1%. Rates of regret for knee and hip replacement surgeries are much higher than gender affirmation surgery, according to studies.

"As somebody who felt acutely suicidal ... who was placed through multiple rounds of conversion therapy, I can tell you that it is incredibly hard to stay alive as a young trans person," Spero said.

"[Bans] will impact the lives of trans youth ... will cause mental distress and will cause, unfortunately, a lot of negative effects in the lives of these youth because they're not able to access life-affirming care."

States across the country are considering bans on transgender health care for youth and young adults.

When signing the bill, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said: "We should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life.

She continued, "Instead, let us all focus on helping them to properly develop into the adults God intended them to be."

Our results demonstrate that undergoing gender-affirming surgery is associated with improved past-month severe psychological distress, past-year smoking, and past-year suicidal ideation. Our findings offer empirical evidence to support provision of gender-affirming surgical care for TGD people who seek it. Furthermore, this study provides evidence to support policies that expand and protect access to gender-affirming surgical care for TGD communities.