LaMalfa, Banks, Cotton introduce the Protecting Minors from Medical Malpractice Act
Congressman Doug LaMalfa and Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Banks introduced the Protecting Minors from Medical Malpractice Act, legislation to help individuals who suffer from potentially sterilizing gender-transition procedures as minors and to allow them to seek justice in court. Senator Tom Cotton is leading the Senate version of the bill.
“Every time a doctor performs a dangerous gender-transitioning procedure on a vulnerable child, they potentially sterilize them for life and break their oath to ‘do no harm.’ I’m pleased to join in spearheading this legislation which will ensure a private right of action for minors who are subject to these experimental procedures and ensure that the federal government cannot force a medical practitioner to perform these procedures,” said LaMalfa.
“The Biden administration released official guidance recommending irreversible and life-altering surgery for minors too young to apply for a learner’s permit. These procedures lack any solid evidence and have been rejected by public health agencies around the world. Ten years from now, there will be hundreds of thousands of Americans who were permanently scarred by the radical left’s agenda before they reached adulthood,” said RSC Chairman Banks. “If Democrats truly supported gender-confused children, they’d support our effort to give them legal recourse.”
“Gender-transition procedures aren’t safe or appropriate for children,” Cotton said. “Unfortunately, radical doctors in the United States perform dangerous, experimental and even sterilizing gender-transition procedures on young kids, who cannot even provide informed consent. Our bill allows children who grow up to regret these procedures to sue for damages. Any doctor who performs these irresponsible procedures on kids should pay.”
You can find the final text of the bill here.
The Protecting Minors from Medical Malpractice Act:
- Creates a private right of action allowing people who had gender-transition procedures performed on them as minors to sue the medical practitioner who performed the procedure;
- Allows victims or their legal guardian to sue for declaratory or injunctive relief, compensatory damages, and attorney’s fees;
- Provides a 30-year statute of limitation after the age of majority;
- Gender-transition procedures include puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgical procedures that change an individual’s body in order to align with an identity at odds with an individual’s biological sex;
- Applicable to procedures performed after the date of passage of this legislation;
- Clarifies that federal law cannot be construed to force medical practitioners to offer such procedures; and
- Prohibits federal health funds from going to states that force medical practitioners to perform gender-transition procedures.
The legislation is supported by the American Principles Project, Heritage Action, Family Policy Alliance, Family Research Council, Independent Women’s Forum, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee, Ethics and Public Policy Center, Alliance Defending Freedom, For America, Eagle Forum, CHANGED Movement.
