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LITTLE ROCK, ARKANSAS - FEBRUARY 07: Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivers the Republican response to the State of the Union address by President Joe Biden on February 7, 2023 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images

LITTLE ROCK (LifeSiteNews) — Arkansas took further action against surgical and chemical “transitioning” of gender-confused minors this week, with the enactment of a new law making it easier for victims of such practices to file lawsuits against the perpetrators.

The Associated Press reports that on Monday, Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders signed into law SB 199, which empowers anyone who received such “care” as a minor to file malpractice suits against the physician responsible for up to 15 years after their eighteenth birthday, rather than the two-year window afforded most malpractice claims.

The change, which will go into effect this summer, helps account for the fact that transitioners’ initial satisfaction in the short term is often followed by regret for their decision and its physical and psychological consequences over a longer period of time – a fact often exploited in studies of “gender-affirming care” to present the practice as safe and effective by neglecting long-term follow-up with patients.

Arkansas already has a ban on underage transitions, the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act, but it is currently blocked in court. As for whether SB 199 will meet a similar fate, its lead sponsor is uncertain but undaunted.

“Anything can create a court challenge in the world we live in today,” said Republican state Sen. Gary Stubblefield. “I know we did what we thought was best for our children.”

Studies find that more than 80% of children experiencing gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by late adolescence, and that even full “reassignment” surgery often fails to resolve gender-confused individuals’ heightened tendency to engage in self-harm and suicide — and may even exacerbate it, including by reinforcing their confusion and neglecting the actual root causes of their mental strife.

On top of those issues, experts outside the medical establishment further warn that surgically or chemically reinforcing gender confusion imposes irreversible harm on children such as infertility, impairment of adult sexual function, and reduced life expectancy, as well as the psychological toll of being “locked into” physical alterations regardless of whether they change their minds when they mature, as attested to by many individuals who “detransitioned” back to their true sex.

The issue is grimly illustrated in the story of Yaeli Martinez, a 19-year-old to whom “gender transitioning” was touted as a possible cure for her depression in high school, supported by a high school counselor who withheld what she was going through from her mother. The troubled girl killed herself after trying to live as a man for three years.

SB 199 is the latest in a series of strong conservative actions pursued by Sanders, the former press secretary of former President Donald Trump and the daughter of former Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee, who was elected last fall. She has also signed laws banning critical race theory and LGBT ideology from public classrooms and barring underage attendance at explicit drag shows. 

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