Bill Text: VA HB966 | 2020 | Regular Session | Prefiled

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Bill Title: Health regulatory boards; conversion therapy.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-02-11 - Left in Health, Welfare and Institutions [HB966 Detail]

Download: Virginia-2020-HB966-Prefiled.html

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20105304D
HOUSE BILL NO. 966 Offered January 8, 2020 Prefiled January 7, 2020 A BILL to authorize certain health regulatory boards to promulgate certain regulations regarding counseling minors. ---------- Patron-- Walker ---------- Committee Referral Pending ----------

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. §1. The Board of Counseling, the Board of Medicine, the Board of Nursing, the Board of Psychology, and the Board of Social Work may each promulgate regulations prohibiting the use of electroshock therapy or other similar non-speech therapy in the practice of counseling any person under 18 years of age, provided, however, that each such health regulatory board, in promulgating such regulations, shall protect the fundamental rights of the practitioner or patient protected under the United States Constitution and shall not promulgate regulations that remove the fundamental right of an individual to select for himself, based on an informed and voluntary choice, a form of counseling that involves nothing more than "talk therapy," regardless of the age of the individual, including in situations where the patient is seeking such counseling to assist him in reducing or eliminating unwanted attractions or behaviors or concerns about gender identity.