The Effect of State Bans on Gender Interventions for Minors on Teen Suicide Rates

Although gender-dysphoric youth experience markedly elevated rates of mental-health distress, the evidence linking so-called gender-affirming medical care to reductions in suicidality has been remarkably tenuous.

Available studies feature serious limitations: They either rely on weak observational designs that cannot isolate the causal effects of medical interventions or related policies, or they use proxies for suicide (e.g., Google searches for the word “suicide”) that may not be reliable measures of completed suicides.

In fact, no study to date has used a quasi-experimental design to assess whether policy restrictions on pediatric “gender-affirming care” affect the incidence of completed suicide.

This report documents how claims concerning such a link have been advanced by scientific and medical authorities, amplified by media, and asserted in the legal arena — despite the weakness of the underlying evidence. To test the claim empirically, we examine whether state prohibitions on surgical or pharmaceutical interventions for minors with gender dysphoria have actually affected adolescent suicide rates.

Using multiple statistical approaches, including difference-in-differences models and a national time-series analysis, we find no evidence that these bans have increased suicide rates.

Continue reading the full report below.