Arkansas Can Enforce SAFE Act Protecting Children from Sex-Change Procedures

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From left: Rep. Robin Lundstrum, Attorney General Tim Griffin, and Sen. Alan Clark discuss the SAFE Act during a press conference on Tuesday, August 12. Rep. Lundstrum and Sen. Clark were the lead sponsors of the measure in 2021.

On Tuesday, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision letting the State of Arkansas enforce a law protecting children from sex-change procedures.

This decision is a victory for children and for common sense.

In 2021, Arkansas became the first state in the nation to pass a law protecting children from sex-change procedures. The Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act prohibits doctors from performing sex-change surgeries or giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors. Unfortunately, the law has been tied up in federal court since 2021 — but Tuesday’s court decision lets the State of Arkansas enforce this good law.

Over the past five years, it has become clear that the medical “consensus” regarding transgender procedures on children has been largely manufactured by pro-LGBT activists.

Men and women have come forward with chilling testimony about how they were rushed through gender transitions as children without knowing the procedures’ risks, consequences, and alternatives.

Sex-change procedures, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones can leave children permanently scarred, sterilized, and at risk of serious health conditions.

Doctors do not know the long-term effects that these procedures might have on people.

Public health experts in the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Finland, and other nations have found that science simply does not support giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids.

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a public inquiry into whether U.S. doctors and clinics may have deceived parents and children about the risks of these procedures, and the U.S. Department of Justice announced it had issued subpoenas to doctors and medical facilities involved in performing sex-change procedures on minors.

In its decision to uphold the SAFE Act, the Eighth Circuit made some important points about sex-change procedures performed on kids:

The judges pointed out that children who use puberty blockers are at greater risk of low bone density.

The court noted that “risks for minors using cross-sex hormones include changes in cholesterol and blood thickness, blood clots (increasing stroke risk), and infertility.”

The judges also cited evidence that sex-change surgeries carry risks and can lead to lifelong regret.

All of these findings underscore just how dangerous these procedures are.

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin celebrated the decision, calling it “the culmination of many years of tireless and skillful legal work by this office. I am grateful for the excellent work done by my Solicitor General team.”

When U.S. District Judge Moody blocked the SAFE Act in 2021, we said we believed a higher court ultimately would overturn his decision. It took four years, but that is what happened on Tuesday.

The SAFE Act is common-sense legislation that protects children. It received overwhelming support from the Arkansas Legislature, and most voters in Arkansas support the law. It looks like our federal courts do too.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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Federal Court Says Arkansas Can Enforce the SAFE Act

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 12, 2025

On Tuesday a three-judge panel from the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision letting Arkansas enforce its 2021 Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act.

Family Council President Jerry Cox released a statement saying, “This is amazing news. The SAFE Act is a good law that protects children from puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries. It has been blocked in court for the past four years. Now the State of Arkansas can finally enforce this good law protecting children. That’s something to celebrate.”

Cox called the SAFE Act a common sense measure that protects children. “Over the past four years, public health experts in the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Finland, and other nations have found that science simply does not support performing these procedures on kids. The SAFE Act is common sense legislation that protects children. That’s why the Arkansas Legislature voted overwhelmingly to pass it in 2021. That’s why more than half the states in America have passed similar laws since then. And that’s why the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a similar law in Tennessee earlier this year. Most people agree it is not right to perform sex-change procedures on kids.”

Cox praised the Arkansas Legislature and the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office for supporting the SAFE Act. “The Arkansas Legislature did the right thing by passing the SAFE Act in 2021, and the Arkansas Attorney General’s Office has worked tirelessly to defend it in court ever since. Arkansans should be proud that we have elected officials who are so deeply committed to protecting children.”

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President Trump Signs Executive Order to Target Debanking

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On August 7, President Trump signed an executive order “guaranteeing fair banking for all Americans.”

Since 2021, news outlets and congressional testimony have highlighted how federal officials and financial institutions targeted conservative organizations through “reputational risk” policies. Conservatives deemed “high risk” could have their bank accounts closed without warning and without explanation.

President Trump’s new executive order directs federal banking regulators to “remove the use of reputation risk or equivalent concepts that could result in politicized or unlawful debanking.”

The order says,

Financial institutions have engaged in unacceptable practices to restrict law-abiding individuals’ and businesses’ access to financial services on the basis of political or religious beliefs or lawful business activities.  Some financial institutions participated in Government-directed surveillance programs targeting persons participating in activities and causes commonly associated with conservatism and the political right following the events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.

In a separate statement, the White House said,

President Trump believes that no American should be denied access to financial services because of their political or religious beliefs, and that banking decisions must solely be made on the basis of individualized, objective, and risk-based analyses.

We have written repeatedly about allegations that major financial institutions deliberately targeted conservative individuals and organizations.

In 2021 Family Council’s credit card processor terminated our account after designating our organization as “high risk.” 

At 10:29 AM on Wednesday, July 7, 2021, our office received a terse email from our credit card processor — a company owned by JPMorgan Chase — saying, “Unfortunately, we can no longer support your business. We wish you all the luck in the future, and hope that you find a processor that better fits your payment processing needs.”

Within sixty seconds, our account was terminated and Family Council could no longer accept donations online.

We later learned our processor had flagged us as “high risk,” but we were unable to get an explanation from the company. All we could do was speculate that our conservative principles and our public policy work might have had something to do with the decision to close our account.

Unfortunately, this was not an isolated incident. Other organizations have had similar experiences as well. In fact, corporate shareholders, state attorneys general, congressmen, and other organizations all have expressed concerns over conservatives being wrongly labeled as “high risk” or “hate groups” and subsequently debanked.

Since then, JPMorgan Chase has taken steps to prevent religiously-motivated debanking. That’s good, but our state and federal government need to make sure this sort of thing never happens to anyone again.

We deeply appreciate the Trump Administration leading the way in getting rid of “reputation risk” policies that have been used to debank conservatives. After all, banks that are too big to fail are too big to discriminate.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.

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