Tennessee Statehouse approves bill allowing legal action against adults who aid minors in accessing trans procedures

AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley, File

The Tennessee Statehouse has given the green light to a bill that would permit civil lawsuits against adults who help minors access transgender procedures without the consent of their parents. The legislation, which was approved on Thursday, is now set to be presented to Republican Governor Bill Lee for his signature.

According to the bill summary on the Tennessee state legislature's website, the proposed law "creates a civil cause of action against any person who knowingly removes a minor from this state without the consent of a parent of the minor for the purpose of assisting the minor in obtaining a healthcare procedure that is to enable the minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor's sex or treating purported discomfort or distress from a discordance between the minor's sex and asserted identity."

This means that adults who assist minors in leaving the state to obtain cross-sex hormones or undergo transgender procedures can be held liable and face civil lawsuits. The bill's original version included criminal penalties for offenders, but it was later amended to focus solely on civil penalties, the Daily Wire reported.

The Associated Press reports that this bill closely resembles another piece of legislation approved on Wednesday, which allows civil action against adults who help minors obtain an abortion without parental consent. The abortion-related bill passed the state Senate with a 26-3 vote.

Rep. Bryan Richey, the sponsor of the transgender procedure bill, recently stated, "At the end of the day, parents should have final say what medical procedures their children are receiving, and nobody else."

Last year, Governor Lee signed a bill banning sex-change procedures for minors. The governor is expected to sign the latest bill into law once it reaches his desk.