Reproductive rights have emerged as one of the most important issues this election, and millions of voters in 10 states will decide on ballot measures that would enshrine abortion rights in their constitutions .
In Hail-Mary attempts to defeat these amendments in Missouri, Maryland and New York, where they seem likely to pass, conservative groups are falsely claiming that pro-choice ballot measures are really efforts to perform gender-affirming surgeries on minors without parental consent.
At the Moms for Liberty annual summit in August, former President Donald Trump claimed children were getting gender reassignment surgeries at schools. There is no truth to the comment, but it plays into Republican fearmongering about trans people — and especially trans youth — that has ramped up over the last few years. The Trump campaign has spent $20 million on anti-trans ads despite polling showing that it’s not a major concern for the American public.
Some conservative organizations seem to hope that sparking fears about children getting surgeries without parental consent will sink ballot measures that are actually about abortion rights, an issue that generally enjoys broad support on both sides of the political aisle.