Arkansas Legislature Overrides Gov. Hutchinson’s Veto Making Transgender Procedures for Minors Illegal

The Arkansas State Legislature has overridden Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s (R) veto Tuesday on sex-reassignment surgeries for minors, rendering certain transgender procedures illegal in the state 90 days after April 30.

Arkansas State Senate voted 25-8, and the State House voted 71-24 to override the governor’s Monday veto, which sought to block transgender procedures for minors, “including drugs and surgeries, and prevented transgender procedures from being considered deductible expenses for income tax purposes,” Breitbart News reported.

Republican State Sen. Alan Clark (R), a sponsor of the measure, said before the vote, “This bill sets out to protect children in an area where they very much need protection.”

Family Council, an Arkansas-based group, called the override the “the right decision”:

The legislation “prohibits sex-reassignment procedures on children in Arkansas. The bill also prevents funding of sex-reassignment procedures performed on children. Gender-reassignment surgeries can leave children sterilized and scarred for life. Medical researchers do not know the long term effects these procedures and therapies can have on kids. That is why many people equate them with experimenting on children.”

But Gov. Hutchinson said, “The bill is overbroad, extreme and does not grandfather those young people who are currently under hormone treatment,” adding, “This is an example of where restraint is better than overbroad actions.”

Some have said sex-change surgeries contain “life-altering dangers with gender dysphoria who insist on receiving cross-sex hormones following puberty-blocking drugs. The end result of blocking puberty from occurring normally, they warned, could be a fast-forward to middle age and all the health concerns that normally come to those in their 40s and 50s,” Dr. Susan Berry reported for Breitbart News.