Kansas Legislature Overrides Governor To Protect Children

TOPEKA, KS – Overriding Governor Laura Kelly’s veto, Kansas lawmakers enacted Senate Bill 63 yesterday to protect children from harmful puberty blockers, hormones, and irreversible mutilating surgeries. The Kansas legislature voted overwhelmingly to protect children by a vote of 84-34 in the House and 31-9 in the Senate – surpassing the two-thirds majority needed for an override.

Commonly referred to as the “Help Not Harm Act,” SB 63 acknowledges the biological reality of sex as male and female and prohibits doctors from “treating” gender-confused minors with these procedures under threat of losing their medical licenses. The law also allows civil lawsuits against medical practitioners who perform these interventions and defunds these procedures from state taxpayer dollars.

The law goes one step further by stipulating that state employees whose official duties include the care of children cannot even promote these gender interventions while engaged in those official duties. This portion of the law equally applies to state property.

The law reads, “Except to the extent required by the first amendment to the United States Constitution, a state property, facility or building shall not be used to promote or advocate the use of social transitioning, medication or surgery…as a treatment for a child whose perceived gender or perceived sex is inconsistent with such child's sex.”

In a joint statement, Kansas Senate President Ty Masterson and House Speaker Dan Hawkins said Gov. Kelly failed to protect children from these “harmful, irreversible, and experimental” interventions and the override of her veto was “common sense.”

Gov. Kelly followed Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson who vetoed similar bills protecting children. However, both those vetoes were also overridden.

The Kansas legislature’s override follows after Trump administration efforts to root out “false” gender ideology in the federal government. In a series of executive orders, President Donald Trump recognized the “incontrovertible reality” of two genders – male and female – and ended federal support for child medical mutilation, calling it a “dangerous trend” and a “stain on our Nation’s history.”

Kansas joins at least 26 other states in banning these procedures on minors. However, the U.S. Supreme Court may likely determine the fate of these laws later this year. In December 2024, the High Court heard oral arguments in United States v. Skrmetti, a legal challenge to Tennessee’s similar law that protects children from medical mutilation. After the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Tennessee’s law as constitutional, the Biden administration inserted itself into the case in 2023 and appealed to the Supreme Court claiming the law violates sex-based protections under the 14th Amendment. However, Tennessee officials argued the law does not draw a sex-based line but a line on risky medical practice and that the Constitution does not grant a right to experimental gender interventions on children. While the Trump administration sent a letter to the Supreme Court rescinding Biden’s previous argument and expressing support for Tennessee’s law, the High Court must now decide whether to dismiss the case or decide the constitutionality of child medical mutilation bans. The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision in June 2025.

Liberty Counsel filed an amicus brief in Skrmetti arguing the states have the authority to regulate certain conduct, such as irreversible and experimental medical interventions.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Governor Laura Kelly refused to protect children, so Kansas legislators sensibly overrode her veto to keep children safe from the false gender ideology agenda. These medical interventions are harmful, scientifically unsupported, and in many cases irreversible. All states need to stand against this radical ideology.”