Sponsors (87)
Creates a federal civil cause of action allowing suits and damages against providers for specified gender‑related medical interventions on minors, with strict liability and extended filing windows.
The bill strengthens legal remedies and long‑term protections for minors harmed by gender‑related interventions, but it does so by imposing broad liability and definitional constraints that are likely to reduce provider willingness to offer care, increase litigation and costs, and create legal uncertainty for clinicians and institutions.
Children who underwent covered gender‑related interventions (and their parents) gain easier access to federal lawsuits and can recover full economic and non‑economic damages under strict‑liability rules, with waivers disallowed — improving survivors' ability to obtain compensation.
People who later seek detransition care have extended windows to pursue claims (up to 25 years after turning 18 or 4 years from detransition expenses), protecting those who discover harms or costs long after treatment.
Key definitions and limited medical carveouts (explicit definition of 'children,' a definition of 'detransition treatment,' and preserved exceptions for diagnosed disorders of sexual development and acute life‑threatening conditions) reduce some legal ambiguity and preserve narrowly specified necessary care.
Minors seeking gender‑related care are likely to lose access as clinicians, clinics, and hospitals avoid offering puberty blockers, hormones, referrals, or surgeries because of broad prohibitions and a wide 'participation' definition, leading to defensive medicine and reduced treatment availability.
Health care professionals and hospitals face large new legal and financial exposure (strict liability, potential punitive damages, and heightened burdens), which will raise malpractice costs, strain providers and health systems, and likely shift costs to patients or taxpayers.
Retroactive liability and extended statutes of limitations create legal uncertainty and could spur numerous suits about past care, burdening providers, complicating defenses (older records/witnesses), and increasing court workload.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Official title: To provide a private right of action for children and the parents of children whose healthy body parts have been damaged by medical professionals practicing or participating in certain interventions.
Introduced February 23, 2026 by Robert F. Onder · Last progress February 23, 2026
Creates a federal private right of action allowing a child who received certain medical interventions that alter or delay sex characteristics as a minor — or that child’s parent or guardian — to sue health care professionals, hospitals, and clinics for damages. Defines covered interventions (puberty blockers, cross‑sex hormones, and surgeries), sets strict liability standards for interventions performed after enactment, and allows damages including compensatory, non‑economic, and punitive awards. Sets definitions for key terms (child, covered interventions, detransition treatment, sex), specifies interstate‑commerce bases for federal jurisdiction, prevents liability waivers, instructs courts to construe ambiguities against defendants, limits deference to prior standards of care in certain disputed circumstances, and establishes extended statute‑of‑limitations triggers tied to age or detransition treatment costs. Includes severability if any provision is struck down.