Legislation – Page 39 – Family Council

Gov. Sanders Signs Law Protecting Children From Malpractice in Sex-Change Procedures

Mar 16, 2023Jerry CoxLegislationArkansas Legislature, LGBT, Transgender

On Monday Gov. Sarah Sanders signed a law that will help protect children from medical malpractice in dangerous sex-change procedures.

S.B. 199 — which is is now Act 274 of 2023 — 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.

Act 274 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

Act 274 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.

Act 274 will help protect children, and it will provide them and their families with legal recourse if they are injured by a sex-change procedure.

Good Bill Would Establish Adoption Education Curriculum in Public Schools

Mar 16, 2023Jerry CoxAbortion, LegislationAbortion, Adoption, Arkansas Legislature, Life, Pro-life, Sanctity of Human Life

A good measure filed at the Arkansas Capitol would help public school students learn about adoption and foster care.

S.B. 384 by Sen. David Wallace (R – Leachville) requires public schools to provide at least one hour of education regarding adoption awareness to students in grades 9-12.

This will help educate high school students about adoption and foster care in Arkansas.

The education provided under S.B. 384 must include:

The benefits of adoption to society
The types of adoption available
The difference between adoption through the foster care system and private adoption
The reasons adoption is preferable to abortion
Public and private resources and agencies available to assist in the adoption process
Statistical data on abortion, adoption, and childbirth
Public and private resources available for pregnant mothers and parents enrolled in a public school
A description of child and human development.

Promoting adoption and foster care is good for children and families, and it is one way that Arkansans can reduce the demand for abortion.

S.B. 384 is a good bill that will help do that.

Arkansas House Narrowly Passes Bill to Protect Children from Obscenity at Libraries

Mar 16, 2023Jerry CoxLegislation, LibraryArkansas Legislature, Library, Obscenity, Pornography

On Wednesday the Arkansas House of Representatives narrowly passed a bill addressing obscenity and other harmful material in public libraries.

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.

On Wednesday, the measure received 56 votes in the Arkansas House of Representatives; it takes 51 votes to pass a bill.

Family Council has heard repeatedly from people who are deeply troubled by obscene children’s books that some librarians have placed on the shelves of their local libraries.

For example, 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.

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 will help prevent that.