Arkansas governor vetoes ban on health care treatment for transgender kids,

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Monday vetoed legislation that would have made his state the first to ban gender-confirming treatments or surgery for transgender youth, although lawmakers could enact the restriction over his objections.

The Republican governor rejected legislation that would have prohibited doctors from providing gender-confirming hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to anyone under 18, or from referring them to other providers for the treatment.

“If [the bill] becomes law, then we are creating new standards of legislative interference with physicians and parents as they deal with some of the most complex and sensitive matters involving young people,” Mr. Hutchinson said at a news conference.

The Republican Legislature could still enact the measure, since it only takes a simple majority of the House and Senate to override a governor’s veto in Arkansas. Mr. Hutchinson said he believed an override was likely.

The veto follows pleas from pediatricians, social workers and the parents of transgender youth, all of whom said the measure would harm a community already at risk for depression and suicide. Mr. Hutchinson said he met with doctors and transgender people as he considered whether to sign the measure.

He said he would have signed if it had just focused on gender-confirming surgery, which isn’t performed on minors in the state. He noted it wouldn’t have exempted youths who are already undergoing treatment.

“The bill is over-broad, extreme and does not grandfather those young people who are currently under hormone treatment,” he said. “In other words, the young people who are currently under a doctor’s care will be without treatment when this law goes into effect.”

Sponsors of the measure did not say when they planned to seek an override or whether they had enough votes secured to enact the measure, despite Mr. Hutchinson’s objection.

The treatment ban was the latest measure targeting transgender people that easily advanced in the Arkansas Legislature and other states this year. Arkansas, Mississippi and Tennessee’s governors have signed laws banning transgender girls and women from competing on school sports teams consistent with their gender identity.