Arkansas Legislature Passes Measure Letting Children Sue If They’re Injured by a Sex-Change Procedure

*Above: Rep. Bentley presents S.B. 199 in committee.*

On Wednesday the Arkansas House of Representatives passed a measure to protect children from medical malpractice in sex-change procedures.

S.B. 199 by Sen. Gary Stubblefield (R – Branch) and Rep. Mary Bentley (R – Perryville) lets a child who undergoes a sex-change procedure sue the healthcare provider who performed procedure if the child suffers any injury as a result.

The bill would let a child file a lawsuit if he or she experiences:

A physical or physiological injury from the sex-change procedure
A psychological or emotional injury from the sex-change procedure
An injury from treatments related to the sex-change procedure
An injury from the after-effects of the sex-change procedure

S.B. 199 also outlines informed-consent processes for sex-change surgeries, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones, and it contains protections for healthcare providers who decline to perform sex-reassignment procedures.

More and more, scientific evidence shows sex-reassignment procedures are harmful to children.

Research published this year calls into question the original studies that encouraged doctors to give puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children with gender dysphoria.

In 2021 a major hospital in Sweden announced that it would no longer give puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids.

Last year the U.K.’s National Health Services closed its Tavistock gender clinic that gave puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children for many years. Families have indicated their children were subjected to sex-reassignment at that clinic despite an obvious lack of scientific evidence in favor of the procedures and inadequate mental health screenings for children with gender dysphoria.

A gender-identity clinic in Scotland faces similar accusations from former patients who say healthcare professionals rushed them into sex-change procedures.

And last July the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finally added a warning label to puberty blockers in America after biological girls developed symptoms of tumor-like masses in the brain.

S.B. 199 will help protect children, and it will provide them and their families with legal recourse if they are injured by a sex-change procedure.

The bill now goes to the governor to become law.