Arkansas sued over new law banning gender transition-related care for youth News
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Arkansas sued over new law banning gender transition-related care for youth

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued Arkansas on Tuesday to block a new law that will ban healthcare professionals in Arkansas from providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth. Governor Asa Hutchinson vetoed the bill in April, explaining that it was an overreach, but the Legislature overrode the veto.

The defendants are Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge and Arkansas State Medical Board members. The suit was filed on behalf of four trans youth and two physicians.

The ACLU alleges that the law violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment “because it discriminates on the basis of sex and transgender status by prohibiting certain medical treatments only for transgender patients and only when the care is ‘related to gender transition.'” Medications that are banned for transgender youths, such as hormones and puberty blockers, would still be available to cisgender youths if the medications are not for transition-related purposes.

The ACLU further asserts that the right to parental autonomy provided by the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment is interfered with, as families cannot make their own decisions about a youth’s treatment. Lastly, the ACLU alleges that the First Amendment was violated because the law prohibits physicians from referring patients to providers of transition care.

The law would force transgender youth to leave the state in order to access transition-related care. The parents of 9-year-old plaintiff Brooke Dennis plan to leave Arkansas if Brooke cannot receive gender-affirming care. Another plaintiff, 15-year-old Dylan Brandt, explained that “having access to care means I’m able to be myself, and be healthier and more confident—physically and mentally.”

Supporters of the bill argue that transgender minors may change their minds and detransition later in life, as transition care for youths is “experimental.” Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge asserted that she will defend the law to limit permanent sex changes in youths and will not “sit idly by while radical groups such as the ACLU use our children as pawns for their own social agenda.”

The law takes effect on July 28. Arkansas is the first state to pass a law restricting transition-related health care.

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