Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson vetoed a bill on Monday that would have protected minors from life-altering and often irreversible physical treatments for gender dysphoria, such as gender reassignment surgeries and hormone therapy. His veto is disappointing; his reasoning even more so.
Hutchinson said the bill, “while well-intended, is off course.” It would create “new standards of legislative interference with physicians and parents as they deal with some of the most complex and sensitive matters involving young people,” he explained.
“While in some instances the state must act to protect life, the state should not presume to jump into the middle of every medical, human, and ethical issue. This would be, and is, a vast government overreach,” the Republican governor continued. “Government under a conservative philosophy should be restrained. … This is an example of where restraint is better than over-broad actions that interfere with important relationships in our society.”
What Hutchinson calls “legislative interference” many would consider common sense. Gender transition procedures are experimental in nature, irreversible once completed, and they rarely produce the outcomes hoped for. Children who undergo these surgeries often later experience severe regret. Some transition back to their original sex.
Knowing all of this, it would be asinine to argue that people so young, with little experience and knowledge, are capable of weighing all of the costs and all of the benefits associated with transitioning. It is even worse to argue parents or healthcare providers should be able to make this decision for them, as Hutchinson just did.
Gender reassignment procedures violate every ethical norm on the books. We’re talking about radically intervening in a child’s physical, mental, and social development — sometimes at a very early age. Puberty blockers are usually prescribed at 10 years of age, when a child has a very limited understanding of who he or she is, and even though these procedures are not medically necessary. The only purpose of these procedures is to affirm a falsehood — that a biological boy can be a biological girl, and vice versa. In some cases, it is actually done to force a transition upon confused youths.
This is a violation of medical ethics and should be treated as such. A doctor would not prescribe radiation treatment for a patient if he did not have diagnosable cancer, no matter how strongly the patient believed he had it. A surgeon would not cut off a patient’s arm just because the patient asked him to. These procedures would irreversibly damage patients’ lives, and it is the doctors’ responsibility to protect these patients from that damage, even if that means opposing the patients’ wishes.
Unfortunately, the medical community has all but abandoned its ethical principles when it comes to gender dysphoria. It has instead embraced a four-part treatment protocol that is doing irreparable damage to young minds and bodies. The plan starts with social transition, then puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and finally, surgery.
Hutchinson’s decision to block a bill that would have protected children from this abuse is a betrayal of conservatism, basic ethics, and bodily reality. Children must be allowed to develop naturally. They need the time and space necessary to mature, and parents and medical professionals should not be allowed to interfere with this process. And if Hutchinson believes it’s an overstep for the government to make sure children are provided that time and space, he ought to think long and hard about what conservatism really is and what it demands of those who claim its mantle.
