Arkansas’ Republican governor vetoes anti-trans health care bill
Gov. Asa Hutchinson told reporters that he killed HB 1570 because the bill “would be and is a vast government overreach” and because it would’ve created “new standards of legislative interference with physicians and parents as they deal with some of the most complex and sensitive matters involving young people.”
The governor called the legislation “a product of the cultural war in America,” adding that his veto comes even though he believed the bill was “well-intended.”
The bill, called the Arkansas Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act, passed the state Senate late last month by a vote of 28-7. The state House passed it in early March by a vote of 70-22.
The bill made what it called an “exception” for some intersex people with unspecified chromosomal makeup and hormone production, and those with difficulties resulting from previous gender-affirming treatments. It also would have banned so-called cross-hormone therapy, a gender-affirming treatment that allows for trans people to change their physical appearance to be more consistent with their gender identity.
This story is breaking and will be updated.
