Actress Sophia Bush — best known for her role on “One Tree Hill” — likened the prohibition of puberty blockers and sex change procedures for minors to “murder.”
In an Instagram post published last week, Bush, 38, expressed outrage over the Arkansas legislature’s passing of the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act, which prevents minors from being put on puberty blockers or undergoing surgical transgender procedures.
“#Transkids are under attack across the country,” Bush posted, captioning a photo of herself and seven other screengrabs.
“[Arkansas] just banned them from accessing healthcare,” she claimed.
This is false, of course, since gender-confused children can indeed receive health care; what the legislation would ban is controversial sex change procedures and puberty blockers for minors.
“This is tantamount to murder,” Bush said. “Kids will tell us who they are. It’s our job to support them, not demonize or harm them.”
On Tuesday, Arkansas House members passed an override of Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto of the SAFE Act, or HB1570.
The bill now moves to the Arkansas Senate for consideration.
“I don’t shy away from the battle when it is necessary and defensible, but the most recent action of the general assembly, while well-intended, is off-course and I must veto,” Hutchinson told reporters Monday, The Daily Wire reported.
The bill would’ve created “new standards of legislative interference with physicians and parents as they deal with some of the most complex and sensitive matters involving young people,” the Republican argued.
“House bill 1570 would put the state as the definitive oracle of medical care, overriding parents, patients and healthcare experts,” Hutchinson added. “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 bill, in part, reads as follows, as noted by The Daily Wire:
The state government has a compelling interest in “protecting the health and safety of its citizens, especially vulnerable children,” House Bill 1570 says. “For the small percentage of children who are gender nonconforming or experience distress at identifying with their biological sex, studies consistently demonstrate that the majority come to identify with their biological sex in adolescence or adulthood, thereby rendering most physiological interventions unnecessary.”
“Furthermore, scientific studies show that individuals struggling with distress at identifying with their biological sex often have already experienced psychopathology, which indicates these individuals should be encouraged to seek mental health services to address comorbidities and underlying causes of their distress before undertaking any hormonal or surgical intervention,” the bill states. “Even among people who have undergone inpatient gender reassignment procedures, suicide rates, psychiatric morbidities, and mortality rates remain markedly elevated above the background population.”
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