Republicans in the Arkansas legislature wasted no time on Tuesday, overriding Governor Asa Hutchinson’s veto of a bill that will now ban medical treatment for transgender youth and teens. On Monday, after signing two anti-LGBTQ bills into law in recent weeks, the Arkansas Republican governor vetoed HB 1570, calling it “off-course,” and not “necessary and defensible.”
Less than 24 hours later Republicans overrode the veto, the AP reports. A simple majority is all that was required.
The ACLU, which has called the bill “one of the most extreme and harmful anti-trans bills in the country,” immediately promised to sue.
HB 1570, the mis-named “Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act,” according to ACLU analysis, “would prohibit healthcare professionals from providing or even referring transgender young people for medically necessary health care.”
“It would bar any state funds for gender-affirming health care for transgender people under 18, and it would allow private insurers to refuse to cover gender-affirming care for people of any age.”
“Doctors who provide medically necessary care to trans youth would risk losing their licenses and be subject to lawsuits by individuals and the state,” the ACLU has said.
The House bill was sponsored by Republican Rep. Robin Lundstrum, the Senate bill was sponsored by Republican Senator Alan Clark (photo).