Senate committee approves amendment allowing civil suits over minors' gender-affirming interventions

Representative Mary Bentley, District 54, closed debate in the Senate Judiciary Committee on House Bill 19‑16 and the committee voted to pass the measure. The bill would amend Act 274 (2023) to allow a minor or the minor’s parent to bring a civil claim for injury “including without limitation any physical, psychological, emotional, or physiological injury” caused by a “gender transition procedure, gender affirming intervention, or related treatment,” and extends the statute of limitations to allow suit up to 15 years after the child turns 18.

The bill’s sponsor, Representative Mary Bentley, said the amendment is intended to restore what she called earlier approaches to care and to provide legal remedies for children who, in her view, have been harmed by gender-affirming medical or behavioral interventions. “I want us to return to what works for Arkansas,” Bentley said in closing.

Supporters of the bill and many committee members described the measure as a survivor-protection and malpractice remedy; opponents — including multiple licensed clinicians and medical professionals testifying during the hearing — warned that its language is vague, would expose broad categories of mental‑health practice to litigation, and could further reduce access to treatment in a state with widely reported shortages of behavioral‑health providers.

Why this matters: the bill changes the legal exposure of clinicians and alters the remedies available to minors alleged to have been harmed by gender‑related care, and it would expand the class of defendants beyond physicians to some behavioral‑health providers depending on how courts interpret the statutory language.

Ke…