Senator Tom Cotton and Representative Jim Banks Introduce Legislation Allowing Adults to Sue Doctors Who "Transitioned" Them As Minors, For Up to 30 Years Post-"Transition"

Make them pay.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., are introducing legislation Wednesday in Congress that would allow adults to sue doctors who perform gender transition procedures on them up to 30 years after they turn 18.

Correction: I misread that. The proposal wouldn't allow suits until age 30, but until 30 years after the transition. So, age of transition plus thirty years.

Under the Protecting Minors from Medical Malpractice Act, patients or their legal guardians would be able to seek declaratory or injunctive relief against such practitioners, as well as compensatory damages and attorneys' fees. The provisions would apply only to procedures performed after the bill becomes law.

The proposed law also 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 doctors to perform them.

...

The bill makes an exception for medical procedures related to chromosome abnormalities.

Cotton told Fox News Digital in a statement that gender transition procedures "aren't safe or appropriate for children."

"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," Cotton continued. "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."

Legislation extending the right-to-sue for minors isn't novel: Virginia Guiffre was only able to sue Prince Andrew because of a law extending her right to sue into her adulthood, for example.

So why not extend it to medical malpractice for gender "transition" surgery?

We know, at least based on the testimony of de-transitioners, that doctors routinely fail to warn patients of the real consequences of the drugs and surgeries involved. Failing to offer informed consent is a classic charge for malpractice.

There are, of course, questions of federalism that warn against this. Virginia Guiffre was able to sue due to New York's Child Victims Act. Cotton is proposing a federal law.

But the Democrats have already federalized the issue:

President Joe Biden on Wednesday will order his health agency to begin efforts to ban conversion therapy and expand access to gender-affirming treatment after a slew of state attempts to limit transgender health care, particularly for children.

The president's executive order will call on the Department of Health and Human Services to clarify that federally funded programs cannot offer conversion therapy, a widely discredited practice that attempts to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity, and work on a public information campaign about the practice. Biden is also directing HHS to take "steps to address the barriers and exclusionary policies" to different types of health care and treatment.

I don't know. In most of the states where these butcheries are taking place, the legislatures are not going to extend the period of time open for filing suit. So absent a federal law, the butchers won't be subject to lawsuits from adults who realize their surgeries have left them permanently injured.

It's a tough one. I guess I'd say the principle of federalism is too important to relax even for this. I guess push this as an amendment to any bill the Democrats push about the issue; if they want a federal law about transgenderism, make them include this provision as well.

But the Democrats seem to want to accomplish their transgenda (see what I did there) through extralegal means, like just decreeing that it's illegal to counsel against transgender surgery.

posted by Ace at 02:57 PM

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