Sponsors (69)
The bill strengthens legal remedies and protections for minors harmed by gender‑related interventions and clarifies some narrow medical exceptions, but does so by broadly restricting certain treatments for minors and imposing substantial liability and uncertainty on clinicians and institutions, likely reducing access to care and increasing costs.
Children and their parents can sue providers more easily and recover full economic and non‑economic damages (including strict liability for post‑enactment participation), increasing the likelihood of compensation for harms from covered interventions.
People who underwent covered interventions as minors (or who later incur detransition treatment costs) get substantially extended windows to bring claims — up to 25 years after turning 18 or within 4 years of paying for detransition care — helping survivors obtain remedies even when harms appear later.
Children under 18 are explicitly defined in the statute, clarifying who the law covers and reducing ambiguity for enforcement and compliance.
Children and families are likely to face reduced access to gender‑related medical care for minors because those interventions are defined as covered and providers and facilities may stop offering them to avoid penalties and liability.
Health care professionals, hospitals, and health systems face much greater litigation risk, strict liability exposure, and potential for higher malpractice and insurance costs, which can be passed on to patients or taxpayers through higher prices or reduced services.
The bill’s broad definition of what it means to ‘participate’ in a covered intervention — coupled with retroactive and post‑enactment liability rules and ambiguity resolution against defendants — significantly increases legal uncertainty and malpractice exposure for clinicians who treated minors, including for past care.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Creates a federal cause of action letting minors (and their parents) sue providers for puberty blockers, hormones, or gender‑related surgery with strict liability and extended filing deadlines.
Creates a federal civil cause of action that lets a child who received puberty blockers, cross‑sex hormones, or gender‑related surgery as a minor — or that child’s parents or legal guardians — sue health care professionals, hospitals, or clinics for damages. The measure defines covered interventions, narrows medical exceptions, imposes strict liability for participation after enactment unless the defendant proves an exception, allows compensatory, non‑economic, and punitive damages, and extends filing deadlines for claims.
Introduced February 23, 2026 by Robert F. Onder · Last progress February 23, 2026