S. 209 · Where this bill is now
In committee
Introduced in the Senate, Jan 23, 2025
What this bill does
In plain words · AI-written from the official summaryMedical malpractice liability for youth gender procedures
This bill would hold medical practitioners legally responsible for any physical, psychological, emotional, or physiological harms from gender-transition procedures performed on people under 18, for 30 years after that person turns 18. It would also make states ineligible for certain federal health funding if they require doctors to perform such procedures. The bill defines gender-transition procedures as surgeries or hormone therapies that change someone's body to match a sex different from their biological sex, with some exceptions for treating intersex conditions, complications from procedures, or life-threatening medical emergencies.
How it affects you
If this becomes law, young people who undergo gender-transition procedures could have the legal ability to hold their doctors responsible for harms decades later. States that mandate these procedures would lose federal Department of Health and Human Services funding. Medical practitioners would face extended liability for these procedures on minors, which could affect how they practice.
Read the official summary (Introduced in Senate, Jan 23, 2025)
Protecting Minors from Medical Malpractice Act of 2025
This bill makes a medical practitioner who performs a gender-transition procedure on an individual who is less than 18 years of age liable for any physical, psychological, emotional, or physiological harms from the procedure for 30 years after the individual turns 18.
Additionally, if a state requires medical practitioners to perform gender-transition procedures, that state shall be ineligible for federal funding from the Department of Health and Human Services.
Under the bill, g ender-transition procedures generally include certain surgeries or hormone therapies that change the body of an individual to correspond to a sex that is discordant with the individual's biological sex. They exclude, however, interventions to treat (1) individuals who either have ambiguous external biological sex characteristics or lack a normal sex chromosome structure, sex steroid hormone production, or sex steroid hormone action; (2) infections, injuries, diseases, or disorders caused by a gender-transition procedure; or (3) a physical disorder, injury, or illness that places an individual in imminent danger of death or impairment of a major bodily function.
Written by AI (Claude) using only the official summary by the Congressional Research Service, the Library of Congress’s nonpartisan research staff. It can miss nuance, so check the official summary and the bill text for details.
1st SessionS. 209
A BILL
Protecting Minors from Medical Malpractice Act of 2025
Sponsor: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) · Introduced Jan 23, 2025 · Health · 1 version of the text
Sources: Congress.gov actions and votes · bill text from GovInfo · latest official action Jan 23, 2025: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on the Judiciary.”
Sections
Sections · 6
- Sec. 1Short titleNo change
- Sec. 2Private right of action for a gender-transition procedure performed on a minorNo change
- Sec. 3Preserving freedom of conscience and medical judgement for medical providersNo change
- Sec. 4Prohibition on funding for certain StatesNo change
- Sec. 5DefinitionsNo change
- Sec. 6Effective dateNo change