The Texas House of Representatives has approved a bill requiring health care agencies to “create a new field in medical records for the sex assigned at birth of patients and strict oversight and punishment of health care providers who change records,” according to a report today (Friday, May 23) by The Texas Tribune.
Senate Bill 1188, sponsored by Friendswood Republican Greg Bonnen, was approved by the House on Thursday, May 22. While Bonnen stressed the measures restrictions on health care providers’ storage of digital servers and use of artificial intelligence, the Tribune notes, Democratic lawmakers were “zeroed in on a provision requiring all health records to include a new segment explicitly listing the sex a patient was assigned at birth and any physical sexual development disorders they may have.”
SB 1188 does have an exemption stating it does not restrict gender identity information from being included in health records, the Tribune reports. But Democrats speaking against it “said the required reporting of gender assigned at birth excludes transgender and intersex patients who may be forced to have a gender displayed in their medical records they don’t identify as.”
— Tammye Nash