The governor of Arkansas has two words for trans youth affected by a discriminatory law recently forced through by Republican legislators: “I’m sorry.”
Republican Asa Hutchinson told NPR this week that he believes state lawmakers took a “step way too far” in overriding his veto of House Bill 1570, which bans gender-affirming health care to trans minors under the age of 18. While Hutchinson was expected to approve the bill after signing an anti-trans sports bill and a religious refusal bill for health care workers into law last month, he blasted the legislation earlier this week as “vast government overreach.”
While the Arkansas Senate voted 25-8 and the House 72-25 to ignore the governor’s concerns, Hutchinson said he stands by his earlier assessment of the legislation. “My own personal view that this is too extreme, it was too broad and did not grandfather in those young people who are currently under hormone treatment,” he told the public broadcaster.
As them. has previously reported, HB 1570 has been condemned by critics as the “single most extreme anti-trans law to ever pass through a state legislature.” The proposal threatens doctors and other medical providers who offer hormones, puberty blockers, and confirmation surgeries to trans youth with potential loss of licensure and prevents insurance coverage for being used for gender-affirming care. Doctors are also barred from referring patients to other physicians to receive such treatments.
Despite opposition from groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Psychological Association, and American Medical Association, conservative lawmakers overturned Hutchinson’s Monday veto within 24 hours. National LGBTQ+ advocacy groups described the decision as “unconscionable.”
“Overriding the veto of HB 1570 was wrong for Arkansas, wrong for transgender youth, and wrong for the medical and mental health professionals entrusted with their care,” said Avery Belyeu, south central regional director for Lambda Legal, in an emailed statement. “Transgender kids are already vulnerable and at increased risk of depression, self-harm and suicide because of lack of support and lack of access to gender-affirming health care.”
Northwest Equality Arkansas, a local LGBTQ+ organization based in Fayetteville, had an even more damning assessment of the first-of-its-kind law. The group’s president, Joseph M. Porter, called HB 1570 “disgusting” and claimed the measure is nothing but “political theater.”
“These cowards have signaled they have no issue with teen suicide, self-harm, or parents and medical providers’ authority to make the correct, and truly safest, decisions to treat transgender youth,” he said of Republican lawmakers in a statement. “It’s a government overreach, and considering this ceases existing and current medical care for trans youth, this will likely end up in court, wasting more taxpayer dollars.”
Hutchinson told NPR that these objections to HB 1570 are “exactly the reason [he] vetoed the bill.” “We did not want to interrupt treatment that the parents had agreed to, the patient had agreed to and the physician recommended,” he said.
While conservative lawmakers in at least 20 other states have put forward proposals similar to Arkansas’ limiting the care that can be offered to trans youth, he maintained his belief that “Republican Party [he] grew up with believed in a restrained government that did not jump in the middle of every issue.” He added that politicians should defer to physicians and parents on medical decisions impacting kids.
“And we ought to yield to that decision making unless there’s a compelling state reason,” he said.
Advocacy groups like the American Civil Liberties Union have said they will fight for an injunction to stop HB 1570 from taking effect, as the law is expected to come into force in July. But the likely litigation hasn’t stopped other states from following in Arkansas’ path: On Monday, lawmakers in North Carolina introduced a bill that would ban gender-affirming care to youth under the age of 21 and force teachers to notify their parents if a student displays “gender nonconformity” at school.
Opponents of the bill hope that North Carolina will heed Hutchinson’s words and end efforts to target trans youth.
“These attempts to control the bodies and medical decisions of parents and their transgender children are invasive, inappropriate, and outright dangerous,” said Kendra R. Johnson, executive director of Equality North Carolina, in a previous statement to them. “Decisions about a child’s medical welfare should be made between that child, their doctor, and their parents or guardians — not lawmakers.”
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