HELENA — The Montana House has endorsed a bill that would allow people to sue if they believe they were harmed by receiving gender transition procedures – but not before adding an amendment on the House floor.
Senate Bill 218, sponsored by Sen. John Fuller, R-Kalispell, would create a private right of action, saying that people could sue doctors if they suffered “any injury, including physical, psychological, emotional, or physiological harms,” as a result of undergoing surgery or hormone treatments for gender dysphoria. It passed 57-42 on a preliminary vote Wednesday, with all Republicans in support and all Democrats opposed.
(Watch the video to hear the debate about SB 218.)
Supporters of the bill said gender transition procedures could have more lasting effects than some patients realize.
“There's nothing hateful about allowing people to be compensated for the very foreseeable damages they suffer – I think that's actually very compassionate,” said Rep. Greg Overstreet, R-Stevensville, who carried SB 218 on the House floor. “In closing, health care providers need to stand by their work.”
Opponents said the bill was overstating the potential harms, and that it was continuing to create fear around these procedures.
“If we were hearing a bill that said detransition-related care should happen in the state of Montana, I think that board would light up green,” said Rep. Zooey Zephyr, D-Missoula. “I think people have a right to work with their doctors and decide what health care is right for them, and if they were to say, ‘I want help making sure that detrans care is covered,’ that would be a green. But this is looking to punish doctors who provide that care and somehow create a boogeyman, that care that is okay for everyone else is not okay for trans people.”
Before advancing SB 218, the House voted 56-43 to amend it, with 14 Republicans joining all 42 Democrats. The amendment, proposed by Rep. SJ Howell, D-Missoula, limited several aspects of the potential lawsuits – removing a “strict liability” standard for doctors, removing the possibility of awarding “punitive damages,” stating the treatment must be “a deviation from the applicable medical standard of care,” and applying the private right of action only to procedures done when the patient was a minor.
Howell said, without the change, SB 218 would “wreak havoc on our health care industry.”
SB 218 will need to pass one final vote in the House. Because the bill has been amended, it will then need to return to the Senate, which could vote to accept or reject the changes.
