Just today, the Arkansas legislature succeeded in easily overriding Governor Asa Hutchinson’s veto of a critical bill to protect the state’s children. The bill was authored by Senator Alan Clark and Representative Robin Lundstrum, a Christian legislator who is an alumna of Family Policy Foundation’s Statesmen Academy℠—our sister foundation’s premier training program for Christian elected leaders.
Because the legislature succeeded in overriding the veto, Arkansas became the first state in the nation with the SAFE Act, a law that prohibits anyone from performing sex-change interventions on children. The law passed with bipartisan support.
The SAFE Act makes clear that the drugs used in these interventions are being used off-label and are entirely experimental. What’s worse, the cross-sex hormones that are used leave children sterile, and the surgeries remove children’s healthy breasts and/or healthy genitalia.
In Arkansas, as in most states, children are not permitted to work in mines, get tattoos, or purchase alcohol or drugs like NyQuil—all for their own protection. Rep. Lundstrum and Sen. Clark simply recognized that if a tattoo is potentially harmful for a child, then certainly sterilizing children or surgically removing their healthy body parts is harmful as well—regardless of whether these procedures are politically popular.
The SAFE Act is wonderful news for Arkansas’s children! But, it shouldn’t stop there. Other states are considering similar laws, including in South Carolina where the bill is sponsored by a Democrat. We say CONGRATULATIONS to Rep. Lundstrum, Sen. Clark, and our good friends at Family Council in Little Rock! And we thank those of you in Arkansas who responded to our alerts and sent thousands of messages to Arkansas legislators. We pray other states follow your state’s bold lead in protecting their own children.
If you’d like to join the effort to protect children from politicized medicine and harmful transgender ideology, consider joining the Promise to America’s Children movement. Arkansas’s Rep. Lundstrum already signed and then led the way to passing the nation’s first SAFE Act!
The Promise unites parents, concerned citizens, and lawmakers who agree that protecting our children’s minds, bodies, and hearts—especially their relationships with their parents—should be a top priority. Our children deserve protection, not politics and experimentation. You can sign the Promise and share it on social media with others as well.
Thank you, Arkansas, for leading the way in protecting your state’s children! But the movement can’t stop there.
#LetKidsBeKids
Autumn Leva
Vice President for Strategy
