House Committee Passes Bill Letting Children Sue If They’re Injured by a Sex-Change Procedure

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Above: Family Council President Jerry Cox spoke in support of S.B. 199 at Tuesday’s committee meeting.

On Tuesday the House Judiciary Committee 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 entire Arkansas House of Representatives for consideration.

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Arkansas Senate Passes Measure Protecting Children From Sexual Indecency

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On Tuesday the Arkansas Senate passed a bill addressing sexual indecency with a minor in public changing areas.

S.B. 270 by Sen. John Payton (R – Wilburn) and Rep. Cindy Crawford (R – Fort Smith) clarifies that an adult commits sexual indecency if the adult enters and remains in a changing area where a child of the opposite sex is present.

It’s a good bill that will help protect children in Arkansas, and Family Council is pleased to be able to work with lawmakers to support this measure.

S.B. 270 now goes to the Arkansas House of Representatives for consideration.

The Following Senators Voted For S.B. 270

  1. Boyd
  2. Crowell
  3. Dees
  4. Dotson
  5. Flippo
  6. Gilmore
  7. Hammer
  8. Hester
  9. Irvin
  10. Johnson, B.
  11. Johnson, M.
  12. McKee
  13. Payton
  14. Petty
  15. Rice
  16. Stone
  17. Stubblefield
  18. Sullivan
  19. Wallace

The Following Senators Voted Against S.B. 270

  1. Bryant
  2. Chesterfield
  3. Flowers
  4. Leding
  5. Love
  6. Murdock
  7. Tucker

The Following Senator Voted “Present” on S.B. 270

  1. Hill

The Following Senators Did Not Vote

  1. Davis
  2. Dismang
  3. English
  4. Hickey
  5. King
  6. Penzo

The Following Senators Were Excused From Voting

  1. Caldwell
  2. Clark

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

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House Committee Fails to Pass Bill That Would Address Obscenity at Libraries

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Above: Family Council staff member Luke McCoy was among those who testified in favor of S.B. 81 at Tuesday’s committee meeting.

On Tuesday the House Judiciary Committee failed to pass a measure that would address obscene material in libraries across Arkansas.

S.B. 81 by Sen. Dan Sullivan (R – Russellville) and Rep. Justin Gonzales (R – Okolona) prohibits giving or sending harmful sexual material to a child.

The bill eliminates exemptions for libraries and schools in the state’s obscenity statute, and it clarifies how library patrons can work to remove objectionable material from a library’s catalog.

As we have written before, the Jonesboro public library has been at the center of multiple controversies over its decision to place books with sexually-explicit images in its children’s section and for failing to adopt a policy that separates sexual material from children’s content.

The library in Jonesboro went so far as to post on Facebook that it isn’t the library’s responsibility to protect kids from obscenity.

Other public libraries in Arkansas have failed to separate sexual material from children’s material as well.

More and more, Family Council is hearing from people who are deeply troubled by the obscene children’s books that librarians have placed on the shelves of their local libraries.

Some of the people who have testified publicly against S.B. 81 this year have signaled that they want to be free to share obscene material with children at a library.

S.B. 81 is a good bill that would help prevent that.

Unfortunately, the bill failed to pass on a voice vote at Tuesday morning’s House Judiciary Committee meeting, but it could come back up later in the session.

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

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