Maine Governor Janet Mills on Wednesday signed a bill prohibiting licensed professionals from administering conversion therapy to minors, becoming the seventeenth state in the US to ban the practice.

The bill forbids “advertising, offering and administering of therapy designed to change a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity, also known as conversion therapy, to individuals under 18 years of age” in Maine. The bill applies to licensed doctors, nurses, guidance councilors, and numerous other types of healthcare professionals and social workers. Offenders would face punishment from their regulatory bodies, including having their license to practice in the state revoked. Conversion therapy has been widely condemned in the medical community, with groups like the American Psychiatric Association stating that conversion therapy “represent[s] a significant risk of harm” to individuals and the American Medical Association calling it “unethical” and “not based on medical or scientific evidence.”

In a tweet following the signing ceremony, Mills said, “Today I signed into law a bill banning conversion therapy, a widely-discredited practice that has no place in Maine. Today, we send an unequivocal message to young LGBTQ people: we stand with you, we support you, and we will always defend your right to be who you are.”

Maine is the third state to ban conversion therapy in 2019, following Massachusetts and New York, and the seventeenth state in the country to do so. In addition, the the District of Columbia outlawed the practice in 2014, while Puerto Rico enacted a similar measure in March.