LINCOLN- Prior to debate on the controversial LB574, a bill that would restrict minors from receiving gender-affirming care, a trio of Nebraska Board of Health members drafted a board statement in support of the bill. Before this, Dr. Jamie Dodge, a board member, had testified in support of the bill during its public hearing in February. According to Sen. Kathleen Kauth, who introduced LB574, she had suggested to Dodge that he should help draft the board's statement since a similar ban in Florida was supported by their respective Board of Health.

"If you could get it for Monday's meeting so I can present it Tuesday that would be pretty amazing," Kauth wrote in a March 16th text message to Dodge, to which Dodge responded, "I will do my best." Kauth stated that the statement provided to her by the board was particularly helpful in making the case for LB574. Critics, however, saw the statement as something motivated by far-right politics, a far departure from the Health Board's main responsibilities and objectives.

"It was definitely a politically driven, well-orchestrated effort, in collusion with the bill's sponsor, to push a political position," said Sen. Danielle Conrad during a debate for LB574. Conrad, alongside the ACLU of Nebraska and a former state health director, raised concerns that the board's statement runs counter to advice from leading physician groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics.

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