Arkansas State Rep. Robin Lundstrum – Photo: Facebook
An Arkansas House committee has passed a bill that would bar transgender people under the age of 18 from accessing gender-affirming health care to treat gender dysphoria.
The bill, bearing the Orwellian title of the “Arkansas Save Adolescents From Experimentation Act,” would threaten medical providers with disciplinary action if they recommend puberty blockers, hormones, or gender confirmation surgery to youths struggling with gender dysphoria. It would also allow anyone who undergoes medical treatments for gender dysphoria as a minor to sue the prescribing physician for up to 20 years after receiving the treatment, which will likely have the effect of intimidating doctors into refusing to treat transgender minors.
The measure expressly prohibits public funds, including Medicaid dollars, from being used to cover the costs of transition-related care, and prohibits any entity or medical practice that receives public dollars from prescribing treatments, being reimbursed for such treatments, or performing transition-related surgical procedures, including genital surgery, liposuction, lipofilling, pectoral implants, voice surgery, facial feminization procedures, or hair reconstruction. It also prevents private insurance from covering procedures or treatments prescribed to individuals under the age of 18.
“It is an accepted principle of economics and public policy that when a service or product is subsidized or reimbursed, demand for that service or product is increased,” the bill states.
Rep. Robin Lundstrum (R-Springdale), testified before the House Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee, saying the intent of the bill was to “protect children.”
“They can make these decisions when they’re over 18 and they’re adults and they can think about the decisions they want to make and they’re capable of making those decisions. But the first rule of medicine is do no harm,” she said. She also noted that the bill does not prevent children suffering from gender dysphoria from accessing counseling, according to University of Arkansas-Little Rock Public Radio.
Rep. Deborah Ferguson (D-West Memphis) spoke against the legislation, alleging that it was being pushed by an “outside lobbying group” that decided “it’s no longer favorable to discriminate against blacks and gays anymore, so they picked transgenders for this session.”
Rumba Yambu, the founder of the Arkansas-based transgender community organization Intransitive, pointed out that the bill would ban transition-related care for minors, even in cases where their decision is being supported by their parents or guardians.
“I want to remind you that the U.S. Supreme Court has recognized time and time again, parents’ constitutional right to care, custody and control of their children. Arkansas even has vaccine exemptions for religious and philosophical reasons. So you need to think about that in the way that this bill is worded,” Yambu told lawmakers.
Despite 15 members of the public speaking against the legislation, compared to only four in favorl, the committee voted 13-4 to move the bill out of committee, setting it up for a vote by the full House of Representatives.
Following the committee hearing, Intransitive posted a statement to its Facebook page.
“It’s with great heartache we share that HB 1570 passed the committee today. It bans all Trans care and referrals to anyone under 18 regardless of parental consent,” the post reads. “…Regardless of local parents, experts and Trans people testifying, some Arkansas legislators laughed as they voted for the bill. It takes an incredible amount of hate and disregard for human life to target Trans children in this way.”
Intransitive also urged parents, lawyers, members of the transgender community, doctors, religious leaders, and business owners to do their part and come out in opposition to the bill, lest it be passed by the House and Senate and ultimately signed into law.
The Trevor Project, the world’s largest suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youth, condemned the committee’s decision to pass the bill, noting that over the past year, the organization has supported over 850 “crisis contacts,” or LGBTQ youth in desperate need of support who were seriously considering self-harm, from Arkansas alone. The organization’s 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health found that more than half of transgender or nonbinary youth have seriously considered suicide in the past year, compared to 40% of all LGBTQ youth respondents.
“Referring to best-practice medical care as ‘experimentation’ is devoid of logic and reality — and denying it would jeopardize young lives in Arkansas. The science, research, and academic communities agree that gender-affirming care produces positive mental health outcomes and reduces suicide risk,” Sam Brinton, the vice president of advocacy and government affairs for The Trevor Project, said in a statement.
“When you actually take the time to listen to transgender and nonbinary youth, as The Trevor Project’s crisis counselors do every day, it becomes abundantly clear how essential affirmative care is to their health and well-being,” Brinton added. “Medical professionals should decide what care is in the best interest of a patient, not partisan politicians.”
Philanthropist MacKenzie Scott has donated $45 million to The Trevor Project, marking the largest gift in the LGBTQ youth crisis organization’s history.
Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, gives away millions of dollars each year to nonprofit organizations focused on education, climate change, environmental protection, racial and social justice, and LGBTQ rights.
According to Forbes, Scott’s 2025 philanthropy brought her total lifetime giving to $26 billion, placing her among the three most generous donors in the United States, behind only Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. She has also donated more than five times the amount given by her ex-husband, despite his status as the world’s third-richest man.
Two major medical organizations have walked back their support for surgical interventions on transgender youth following a successful medical malpractice lawsuit brought by a detransitioner.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS), which represents more than 11,000 plastic surgeons in the United States, told members to delay transition-related chest, genital, and facial surgeries until patients are at least 19, according to The Washington Post.
Fewer than 1,000 minors in the United States receive surgery for gender dysphoria each year, according to research published in JAMA, and the overwhelming majority of those procedures are mastectomies, or "top surgery," rather than genital surgeries, or "bottom surgery."
A federal judge who routinely sides with conservative activists has upheld West Texas A&M University’s ban on campus drag performances, ignoring long-standing precedent and rejecting First Amendment arguments for why the prohibition should be overturned.
West Texas A&M University imposed the ban in 2023, when University President Walter Wendler barred Spectrum WT, the college's LGBTQ student organization, from hosting a campus drag show to raise money for The Trevor Project, the nation's leading LGBTQ suicide prevention organization.
Wendler blocked the show on the grounds that drag is "misogynistic" and mocks women, comparing the art form to blackface. He also maintained there is no such thing as a "harmless drag show," arguing that performers adopt exaggerated gender expressions through makeup, clothing, and prosthetics that stereotype and insult women.
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