|
 But his veto could be overridden by a simple majority vote in the
Arkansas Senate and House, which passed the bill with sizeable
majorities.
At least 16 other states are considering similar legislation, which
transgender advocates have attacked, saying that cutting off badly
needed care to adolescents would inevitably lead to more suicides.
Civil rights organizations have also pledged to sue to stop any such
measures that might pass.
Hutchinson's veto was a bit of a reversal from his action on another
transgender bill just one week ago, when he signed into a law a bill
that bans transgender women and girls from playing female sports.
The Arkansas bills are part of a wave of legislation that
Republicans have introduced on transgender issues this year - a
record 93 bills in at least 22 states, according to Human Rights
Campaign, an LGBTQ organization.
But rather than again side with social conservatives on a
transgender issue, Hutchinson, a Republican in his second and final
term, offered a small-government conservative argument for opposing
what he otherwise called a "well-intended" bill.
"The state should not presume to jump in to the middle of every
medical, human and ethical issue. This would be, and is, a vast
government overreach," Hutchinson told reporters, saying he expected
the legislature to take up an override vote.
The bill's language threatens to revoke the medical licenses of any
healthcare professionals who provide puberty blockers, cross-sex
hormones or gender-affirming surgery to minors, and it opens
healthcare providers up to lawsuits from patients who later regret
their procedures.
Arkansas had become the second state after Mississippi to pass a law
that bans transgender women and girls from playing female sports.
Idaho passed a similar law last year that has been blocked by
federal court.
[to top of second column] |
 South Dakota Governor Kristi
Noem last week issued a pair of executive orders
banning trans women and girls from female
sports, after failing to reach a deal with the
state legislature on similar legislation.
Alabama and Tennessee are among the states
advancing toward transgender healthcare bans for
teens.
Proponents say they want to protect kids from
medical procedures that they will later regret.
They also accuse transgender advocates of
minimizing the side effects and downplaying
cases where transgender people reverse their
decision to transition.
But critics say the proposals are
unconstitutional, defy the best medical science,
and rely on outdated stereotypes, seeing them as
a political ploy to whip up right-wing outrage.
They heavily lobbied Hutchinson for a veto.
"This veto belongs to the thousands of Arkansans
who spoke out against this discriminatory bill,
especially the young people, parents, and
pediatricians who never stopped fighting this
anti-trans attack," Holly Dickson, director of
the American Civil Liberties Union in Arkansas,
said in a statement, vowing to sue if the
legislature overrides the veto.
Experts say each step in an adolescent's
treatment is undertaken with the consultation of
doctors, therapists and social workers, often
over months if not years.
 (Reporting by Daniel Trotta in Vista, Calif.,
and Peter Szekely in New York; Editing by Leslie
Adler and Matthew Lewis)
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