Bill Text: AZ SB1687 | 2025 | Fifty-seventh Legislature 1st Regular | Introduced
Bill Title: Gender transition; public funds; prohibition
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 1-0)
Status: (Introduced) 2025-02-11 - Senate read second time [SB1687 Detail]
Download: Arizona-2025-SB1687-Introduced.html
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REFERENCE TITLE: gender transition; public funds; prohibition |
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State of Arizona Senate Fifty-seventh Legislature First Regular Session 2025
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SB 1687 |
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Introduced by Senator Leach
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An Act
amending section 32-3230, Arizona Revised Statutes; amending title 35, chapter 1, article 5, Arizona Revised Statutes, by adding section 35-196.06; relating to health care services.
(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Section 32-3230, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended to read:
32-3230. Irreversible gender reassignment surgery; gender reassignment drugs; minors; prohibition; exceptions; violation; classification; civil action; definitions
A. A physician or other health professional may not provide, or refer to another physician or HEALTH professional to provide, irreversible gender reassignment surgery to any individual who is under eighteen years of age.
B. A physician or other health professional MAY NOT prescribe or administer, or refer to another physician or HEALTH professional to prescribe or administer, ANY OF THE FOLLOWING to AN INDIVIDUAL WHO IS UNDER EIGHTEEN YEARS OF AGE IF THE prescription or administration IS FOR THE PURPOSEs OF CHANGING AN INDIVIDUAL'S APPEARANCE OR BODY TO NO LONGER CORRESPOND TO THE INDIVIDUAL'S BIOLOGICAL SEX:
1. GONADOTROPIN-RELEASING HORMONE ANALOGUES OR any OTHER SYNTHETIC DRUG USED TO STOP LUTEINIZING HORMONE AND FOLLICLE STIMULATING HORMONE SECRETION, SYNTHETIC ANTIANDROGEN DRUGS USED TO BLOCK THE ANDROGEN RECEPTOR OR ANY other DRUG TO SUPPRESS OR DELAY NORMAL PUBERTY.
2. TESTOSTERONE, ESTROGEN OR PROGESTERONE TO A MINOR IN AN AMOUNT GREATER THAN WOULD NORMALLY BE PRODUCED ENDOGENOUSLY IN A HEALTHY INDIVIDUAL OF THAT MINOR'S AGE AND BIOLOGICAL SEX.
B. C. A physician or other health professional may provide any of the following to an individual who is under eighteen years of age:
1. Services to an individual born with a medically verifiable disorder of sex development, including an individual with external biological sex characteristics that are irresolvably ambiguous, such as being born with forty-six XX chromosomes with virilization or forty-six XY chromosomes with undervirilization or having both ovarian and testicular tissue.
2. Services provided when a physician has otherwise diagnosed a disorder of sexual development and has determined through genetic or biochemical testing that the individual does not have normal sex chromosome structure, sex steroid hormone production or sex steroid hormone action.
3. The treatment of any infection, injury, disease or disorder that has been caused by or exacerbated by the performance of gender transition procedures, whether or not the gender transition procedure was performed in accordance with state and federal law.
4. Any procedure undertaken because the individual suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the individual in imminent danger of death or impairment of major bodily function unless surgery is performed.
D. A PERSON WHO violates subsection A or B of this section IS GUILTY OF A CLASS 1 MISDEMEANOR.
E. A physician or other health professional who violates subsection A or B of this section commits an act of unprofessional conduct and is subject to discipline by the appropriate health profession regulatory board that has jurisdiction over the health professional.
F. A person may assert an actual or threatened violation of this section as a claim or defense in a judicial or administrative proceeding and obtain compensatory damages, injunctive relief, declaratory relief or any other appropriate relief.
G. Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, A person may bring a claim for a violation of this section not later than two years after the day the cause of action accrues. A person who is under eighteen years of age may bring an action before reaching eighteen years of age through a parent or guardian and may bring an action in the person's own name on reaching eighteen years of age and not later than twenty-five years after that date. An action under this section may be commenced and relief may be granted in a judicial proceeding without regard to whether the person commencing the action has sought or exhausted any available administrative remedies.
H. In any action or proceeding to enforce this section, a prevailing party who establishes a violation of this section is entitled to recover reasonable attorney fees.
I. The attorney general or the county attorney for the county in which an alleged violation of this section OCCURS may bring an action to enforce compliance with this section. This section does not deny, impair or otherwise affect any right or authority of the attorney general, this state or a county in this state or any agency, officer or employee of this state or a county in this state to institute or intervene in any proceeding.
C. J. For the purposes of this section:
1. "Biological sex" means the biological indication of male and female in the context of reproductive potential or capacity, such as sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, gonads and nonambiguous internal and external genitalia present at birth, without regard to an individual's psychological, chosen or subjective experience of gender.
2. "Gender" means the psychological, behavioral, social and cultural aspects of being male or female.
3. "Gender transition" means the process in which a person goes from identifying with and living as a gender that corresponds to the person's biological sex to identifying with and living as a gender different from the person's biological sex and may involve social, legal or physical changes.
4. "Irreversible gender reassignment surgery" means a medical procedure performed for the purpose of assisting an individual with a gender transition, including any of the following:
(a) Penectomy, orchiectomy, vaginoplasty, clitoroplasty or vulvoplasty for biologically male patients or hysterectomy or ovariectomy for biologically female patients.
(b) Metoidioplasty, phalloplasty, vaginectomy, scrotoplasty or implantation of erection or testicular prostheses for biologically female patients.
(c) Augmentation mammoplasty for biologically male patients and subcutaneous mastectomy for female patients.
5. "Physician" means a person who is licensed pursuant to chapter 13 or 17 of this title.
Sec. 2. Title 35, chapter 1, article 5, Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 35-196.06, to read:
35-196.06. Use of public funds or insurance for gender transition treatment prohibited; definition
A. Notwithstanding any law to the contrary, public funds, tax monies of this state or any political subdivision of this state OR any federal funds passing through the state treasury or the treasury of any political subdivision of this state may NOT be expended for payment to any person or entity for the performance of any gender transition treatment.
B. Notwithstanding any other law, public monies or tax monies of this state or any political subdivision of this state MAY not be expended directly or indirectly to pay the costs, premiums or charges associated with a health insurance policy, contract or plan that provides coverage, benefits or services related to the performance of any gender transition treatment.
C. Notwithstanding any other law, public monies or tax monies of this state or any political subdivision of this state or any federal funds passing through the state treasury or the treasury of any political subdivision of this state or monies paid by students as part of tuition or fees to a university under the jurisdiction of the ARIZONA board of REGENTS or a community college as defined in section 15-1401 MAY not be expended or allocated for training to perform gender transition treatment.
D. For the purposes of this section, "gender transition treatment" means a surgical operation or medical intervention intended to alter the appearance or anatomy of an individual to affirm the individual's perception of the individual's sex in a way that is inconsistent with the individual's biological sex.
Sec. 3. Legislative right of intervention
The legislature, by joint resolution, may appoint one or more of its members who sponsored or cosponsored this act in the member's official capacity to intervene or defend the statute as a matter of right in any case in which the constitutionality or enforceability of this act or any portion of this act or any rule adopted pursuant to this act is challenged.
Sec. 4. Legislative findings
The legislature finds that:
1. This state has a compelling government interest in protecting the health and safety of its citizens, especially vulnerable children.
2. Only a tiny percentage of the American population experiences distress at identifying with their biological sex. According to the American psychiatric association, prevalence ranges from 0.005 to 0.014 percent for natal adult males and from 0.002 to 0.003 percent for natal females.
3. For the small percentage of children who are gender-nonconforming or who 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 medical health care interventions unnecessary.
4. Scientific studies show that individuals experiencing distress at identifying with their biological sex often have already experienced psychopathology, which indicates these individuals should be encouraged to seek mental health care services before undertaking any surgical or hormonal intervention.
5. Suicide rates, psychiatric morbidities and mortality rates remain markedly elevated above the background population after inpatient gender reassignment procedures have been performed.
6. Some health care providers are prescribing puberty-blocking drugs in order to delay the onset or progression of normally timed puberty in children who experience distress at identifying with their biological sex. This is being done despite the lack of any long-term longitudinal studies evaluating the risks and benefits of using these drugs to treat such distress or gender transition.
7. Health care providers are also prescribing cross-sex hormones for children who experience distress at identifying with their biological sex, despite the fact that no randomized clinical trials have been conducted on the efficacy or safety of the use of cross-sex hormones in adults or children for the purpose of treating such distress or gender transition.
8. The use of cross-sex hormones comes with the following serious known risks:
(a) For females, erythrocytosis, severe liver dysfunction, coronary artery disease, cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, increased risk of breast and uterine cancers and irreversible infertility.
(b) For males, thromboembolic disease, cholelithiasis, coronary artery disease, macroprolactinoma, cerebrovascular disease, hypertriglyceridemia, breast cancer and irreversible infertility.
9. The risks of gender transition procedures far outweigh any benefit at this stage of clinical study on these procedures.
