By Alvise Armellini
ROME (Reuters) -Italy will tighten controls on the supply of gender-affirming medical care for minors, according to a draft law approved by the government that has triggered protests from transgender rights advocates.
The law, passed by the cabinet late on Monday but still subject to parliamentary approval, will regulate medicines such as puberty blockers and feminising or masculinising hormones for those under the age of 18 who are experiencing gender dysphoria.
In a statement, the government said it was needed "to protect the health of minors" and introduce "effective data monitoring."
Gender dysphoria is the clinical diagnosis of significant distress that can result from an incongruence between a person's gender identity and their assigned sex at birth.
The new bill states that gender-affirming medicines will only be dispensed following protocols yet to be drafted by the health ministry, and, pending that, after approval by a national ethics committee of paediatricians.
It also sets up a national registry at the Italian Medicines Agency to monitor "the correct use of (these) medicines" and collect the detailed medical histories of each transgender person undergoing treatment.
"This is a form of profiling of trans people, with all their sensitive data, in the hands of a government-nominated agency ... it is extremely serious," Roberta Parigiani, a spokesperson for the Trans Identity Movement, told Reuters on Tuesday.
She said that introducing more layers of screening for the approval of gender-affirming medical care was concerning, as it increases the risk that treatment may be delayed for young teenagers or pre-teens waiting for it.
"It's not like you can wait one or two years," Parigiani said.
Under Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a self-described enemy of what she and her allies call the "LGTB lobby" and "gender ideology," Italy has a right-wing government that espouses so-called traditional family values.
In the nearly three years that it has been in office, Meloni's coalition has made it harder for same-sex couples with children to be both recognised as legal parents, and has made it illegal for any couple to go abroad to have a baby via surrogacy.
The draft bill could be rejected or substantially amended by parliament, but given that Meloni's coalition has a solid majority and backs its objectives, there is a high chance it will be approved.
(Reporting by Alvise Armellini, Editing by Bernadette Baum)
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