LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The Arkansas House sent the GOP governor a bill Wednesday to make it easier to sue doctors who provide gender-affirming treatment to minors, moving to effectively reinstate the state’s blocked ban on such care.
The office of Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders said she backs the malpractice bill, which overwhelmingly passed the majority-Republican House on a mostly party-line vote.
“The governor has said that she supports bills that protect our kids and will support legislation like this that does just that,” spokeswoman Alexa Henning said in an email. “Only in the far-left’s woke vision of America is it not appropriate to protect children.”
The House-passed bill would allow anyone who received gender-affirming care as a minor to file a malpractice lawsuit against their doctor for up to 15 years after they turn 18. Under current Arkansas law, medical malpractice claims must be filed within two years of what the law refers to as an “injury.”
The proposal is the latest in a growing number of bills targeting transgender people, who also face increasingly hostile rhetoric at statehouses. At least 175 bills targeting trans people have been introduced in statehouses so far this year, the most in a single year, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
