Arkansas Governor Vetoes Transgender Bill

Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R) announced he vetoed a bill that would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth because it “interfered with the relationship between doctors and patients,” the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.

He also called the bill a “vast government overreach” and a “product of the cultural war in America.”

Washington Post: “The bill, which is part of a wave of similar legislation across the country, would have banned doctors from providing transgender minors with gender-affirming treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapies and transition-related surgeries, or referring them for such treatments. Republican lawmakers in at least 17 other states have introduced similar bans on medical treatments for transgender minors, despite opposition from major pediatric and psychiatric organizations.”