Republican Indiana Rep. Jim Banks and California Rep. Doug LaMalfa introduced legislation Wednesday to allow adults to sue doctors that performed gender reassignment procedures on them while they were minors, Fox News reported.
The Protect Minors From Medical Malpractice Act states, “A medical practitioner … who performs a gender-transition procedure on an individual who is less than 18 years of age shall, as described in subsection (b), be liable to the individual if injured (including any physical, psychological, emotional, or physiological harms) by such procedure, related treatment, or the aftereffects of the procedure or treatment.” The bill defines gender reassignment procedures to include prescribing cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers as well sex-change surgery, Fox News reported.
Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton is introducing the Senate version. He did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment by time of publication.
“The Biden administration released official guidance recommending irreversible and life-altering surgery for minors too young to apply for a learner’s permit,” Banks told the Daily Caller. “Ten years from now, there will be hundreds of thousands of Americans who were permanently scarred by the radical left’s agenda before they reached adulthood.”
Radical doctors in the US are performing dangerous, experimental, and even sterilizing gender-transition procedures on young kids, who can’t even provide informed consent. Our bill allows children who grow up to regret these procedures to sue for damages.https://t.co/ttaLTCg8WX
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) June 22, 2022
“If Democrats truly supported gender-confused children, they’d support our effort to give them legal recourse,” he also said.
“Performing experimental, irreversible, and potentially sterilizing procedures on vulnerable children is inexcusable,” LaMalfa, co-sponsor with Banks of the bill in the House, told the Daily Caller.
“I will keep fighting to get this legislation passed into law and ensure protections for our nation’s children,” he added.
The legislation would also remove certain federal funding from states that force doctors to perform such procedures.
“[A]ny State that requires medical practitioners to perform any gender-transition procedure on an individual in the State shall be ineligible to receive any Federal funding from the Department of Health and Human Services,” the bill says.
The bill stipulates that an individual may sue a medical practitioner who administers such procedures no more than 30 years after he or she turns 18.
President Joe Biden directed the Department of Health and Human Services to expand access to what he called “gender-affirming care” June 15. He issued an executive order that told the HHS to strength efforts to ban conversion therapy and increase access to sex change treatment for transgender Americans, including children. (RELATED: Biden To Direct HHS To Expand Access To Sex Change Treatments, Particularly For Children)
“The Department of Justice has intervened and filed statements of interest in lawsuits across the country challenging state laws that seek to ban transgender children from accessing gender-affirming health care and participating in school activities as unconstitutional,” the White House said in a fact sheet at the time.
