Category: Asa Hutchinson

Why I vetoed my party’s bill restricting health care for transgender youth

For over 40 years, I have been fighting to build the Republican Party by advancing the principles of limited government and individual liberty. Thanks to that focus, the GOP has become the majority party in Arkansas. Now, I am being attacked by some of my Republican colleagues for not being pure enough on social issues and for vetoing a bill that limited access to health care for transgender youth.

Apr 10, 2021

Tagged : Asa Hutchinson, Transgender Bill

Asa Hutchinson, a Republican, is the governor of Arkansas.

For over 40 years, I have been fighting to build the Republican Party by advancing the principles of limited government and individual liberty. Thanks to that focus, the GOP has become the majority party in Arkansas. Now, I am being attacked by some of my Republican colleagues for not being pure enough on social issues and for vetoing a bill that limited access to health care for transgender youth.

Make no mistake: I am pro-life. I believe there are some issues where the stakes are so high that government must play a role in private life. I have fought my share of battles in defending the role of faith in our society. At the same time, while governor, I have lowered taxes, balanced the budget and defended the Second Amendment. Yet the reaction of some of my conservative friends now makes me wish they would remember President Ronald Reagan’s admonition that if someone agrees with you 80 percent of the time then they are your friend and ally — not the enemy.

I vetoed this bill because it creates new standards of legislative interference with physicians and parents as they deal with some of the most complex and sensitive matters concerning our youths.

It is undisputed that the number of minors who struggle with gender incongruity or gender dysphoria is extremely small. But they, too, deserve the guiding hand of their parents and the counseling of medical specialists in making the best decisions for their individual needs.

H.B. 1570 puts the state as the definitive oracle of medical care, overriding parents, patients and health-care experts. While in some instances the state must act to protect life, the state should not presume to jump into the middle of every medical, human and ethical issue. This would be — and is — a vast government overreach.

Leadership is acting not just on your convictions but also on your compassion. Parents are doing their best to guide the young person God entrusted to them. As they seek medical help, it is important to understand the trauma, emotional challenge and love involved in making difficult decisions. The leading Arkansas medical associations, the American Academy of Pediatrics and medical experts across the country all oppose this law. Their concern is that denying best practice medical care to transgender youth can lead to significant harm to the young person — from suicidal tendencies and social isolation to increased drug use. Given these risks, we have to ask whether the state action helps or unjustifiably interferes.

In Arkansas, gender reassignment surgery is not performed on anyone under 18. If H.B. 1570 simply prohibited gender reassignment surgeries for minors, reaffirming the present state of affairs, then I would have signed the bill.

Instead, it is overbroad and extreme, and does not grandfather in those young people who are currently under hormone treatment. The young people who are currently under a doctor’s care will be left without treatment when this law goes into effect.

They may look to the black market for their medications or travel out of state for care if they can afford to do so. This is not the right path to put them and their families on.

As I expected, the Arkansas General Assembly overrode my veto. But I acted on my convictions and based on what I learned in discussions with families, health-care professionals, faith leaders and transgender individuals. Of course, I listened to the thinking of legislators and followed the debate in the General Assembly. I came to the conclusion that this is a time to show compassion and to resist the temptation to severely restrict private family health-care decisions.

I am also hopeful that my action will cause conservative Republican legislators to think through these issues again, and hopefully come up with a more measured approach that allows a thoughtful study of the science and ethics surrounding health care for children and teenagers who experience gender dysphoria before acting. Government, under a conservative philosophy, should be restrained. This is an example of where that approach is better than overbroad actions that interfere with important relationships in our society.

If we are going to be a party of a restrained and limited government, then we actually have to practice those values at some point. If Democrats won’t, I hope Republicans, at least, can resist the constant pressure from activists to use government as a means to change the culture. We must remind ourselves that a change in society is led from the heart, the church and from a greater understanding of each individual that forms the fabric of this great nation.

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Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, a Republican, vetoed an anti-transgender bill.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas vetoed a bill on Monday that would make it illegal for transgender minors to receive gender-affirming medication or surgery — a rare Republican rejection amid the growing conservative effort to restrict transgender people’s health care and participation in society.

Apr 05, 2021

Tagged : Asa Hutchinson, Asa Hutchinson III, Republican, Transgender Bill

Gov. Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas vetoed a bill on Monday that would make it illegal for transgender minors to receive gender-affirming medication or surgery — a rare Republican rejection amid the growing conservative effort to restrict transgender people’s health care and participation in society.

The Arkansas State Legislature could override Mr. Hutchinson’s veto of the bill, known as H.B. 1570. Republicans hold large majorities in both chambers and passed the bill last month with mostly party-line votes: 70-22 in the House and 28-7 in the Senate.

“I was told this week that the nation is looking at Arkansas because I have on my desk another bill passed by the General Assembly that is a product of the cultural war in America,” Mr. Hutchinson said in announcing his veto. “I don’t shy away from the battle when it is necessary and defensible, but the most recent action of the General Assembly, while well intended, is off course.”

Chase Strangio, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union who has fought anti-trans legislation in Arkansas and other states, said that while he and other advocates needed to be “tentative in our celebration” because of the possibility of an override, Mr. Hutchinson’s veto was significant both practically and symbolically.

“First and foremost, it’s such an important rebuke of this sweeping range of legislation targeting trans youth across the country,” Mr. Strangio said. Referring to two states that are considering similar bills, he added: “I hope Alabama’s watching. I hope Tennessee’s watching.”

Young transgender people and their supporters mobilized in opposition to H.B. 1570, along with medical organizations like the Arkansas chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Mr. Strangio said that advocates intended to keep up the pressure as legislators consider overriding Mr. Hutchinson’s veto, and that if the measure was enacted, it could be challenged in court.

The lead sponsors of the bill — State Representative Robin Lundstrum and State Senator Alan Clark, both Republicans — did not respond to a request for comment.

Supporters of the Arkansas bill say it is needed to protect young people from undergoing irreversible medical treatments, and the text of H.B. 1570 claims — contrary to the consensus of medical professionals — that “the risks of gender transition procedures far outweigh any benefit at this stage of clinical study on these procedures.”

Medical research shows the opposite.

In a 2019 statement opposing laws that restrict minors’ access to gender-affirming treatment, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry said, “Blocking access to timely care has been shown to increase youths’ risk for suicidal ideation and other negative mental health outcomes.” More broadly, in an official position paper in 2018, the American Psychiatric Association said there was “significant and longstanding medical and psychiatric literature” demonstrating “clear benefits of medical and surgical interventions” for transgender people.

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Mr. Hutchinson’s veto was striking not only because he is a Republican, but also because just last month, he signed bills that allowed doctors to refuse to treat people based on religious or moral objections and barred transgender women and girls from competing on women’s sports teams in high school or college. (Such measures have become popular among conservative lawmakers, who have introduced them in more than two dozen states this year.)

But he argued that H.B. 1570 was “overbroad, extreme and does not grandfather those young people who are currently under hormone treatment.” He added, “The state should not presume to jump into the middle of every medical, human and ethical issue.”

His speech was hardly a ringing affirmation of transgender rights, though. Mr. Hutchinson said he would have signed the bill if it had only prohibited gender-affirming surgeries for minors, and urged legislators to pass a more “restrained” version.

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Gov. Asa Hutchinson deserves credit for pandemic response

We owe Gov. Asa Hutchinson our congratulations and sincere expression of appreciation for the masterful job he has done in handling the coronavirus pandemic in Arkansas.

Jun 17, 2020

Tagged : Arkansas, Asa Hutchinson, COVID-19, Governor

We owe Gov. Asa Hutchinson our congratulations and sincere expression of appreciation for the masterful job he has done in handling the coronavirus pandemic in Arkansas. He has faced this major challenge head-on, and has displayed great leadership and wise choices in the decisions he has made, including his selection of the people he has surrounded himself with. The end result is that he has displayed a calm, confident, determined approach throughout the two-and-a-half months he has been battling COVID-19.

This has contributed greatly to the feeling of security and trust the people of Arkansas have toward him. His daily press conferences have reinforced their feelings because he has conducted them in a concise, professional manner, fielding the questions directed to him and ably passing off the others to Dr. Nate Smith, Secretary of the Arkansas Department of Health. At other press conferences, he has brought in other knowledgeable, very capable people, such as Dr. Cam Patterson, Chancellor of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, to address the questions posed to them by the press.

The first known case of COVID-19 in Arkansas was reported on March 11th of this year. The governor declared a public health emergency to facilitate and coordinate the state’s multi-agency response to the pandemic. He did not have a knee-jerk reaction to address the steps to be taken to combat the virus. He addressed the complexities involved in fighting a very dangerous virus, first protecting the people from a health standpoint, and then addressing the threatened effect on our businesses, where they could be closed down, creating a very heavy economic burden on their employees and the state of Arkansas. He did not issue directives immediately to close down businesses, but did it later when he determined that steps had to be taken to stop people from gathering in crowds that contributed to the spread of the virus through social contact, such as bars, restaurants, bowling alleys and health clubs.

He also limited the size of crowds at any location, which essentially closed churches, concerts, sporting events and many businesses because they attracted large crowds. His intent was to cause temporary closures for limited periods of time, which he committed to ease once the spread of COVID-19 was brought under control.

During this time, Asa also promoted social distancing, wearing of face masks, washing of hands, and staying at home as much as possible. It is strongly believed that these actions have played a major role in the success this state has experienced in controlling COVID-19, providing much better results than some states that employed more radical approaches in their efforts to stop the virus. The governor has achieved this success in spite of being blind-sided by a large number of people in our state prison system having the virus, as well as in the federal prison in St. Francis County, along with a significant number of people in nursing homes throughout the state of Arkansas, including patients and staff members, which caused dramatic increases in all of the various COVID-19 related statistics.

After absorbing these numbers initially, Arkansas slowed the growth of the coronavirus in Arkansas, with drops in the rate of infection, the number of people in our hospitals, the ones requiring ventilators and the ones dying.

Asa has instituted a very active testing program aimed at spotting the people who have the virus and getting them treatment and eliminating many others from consideration. He set a goal of 60,000 Arkansans to be tested in May and has surpassed that number. He has further set a goal of testing everybody in nursing homes, including residents and staff members, which will total more than 40,000 people, during June. This intensive testing, when combined with contact tracing, will help them identify prospective hot spots and enable them to have more effective treatment and prevention.

Recently, Gov. Hutchinson started moving Arkansas back to normal, which will be a new normal, by approving the opening of businesses that have been closed and bringing them back into the economy. He actively pursued getting both state and federal dollars to provide relief to businesses that had closed, or were operating on a limited basis, as well as employees who had lost their jobs as businesses closed. Businesses are reopening and employees are going back to work, but there is still a long way to go. Asa is convinced that there will be a second wave of the virus that will hit us before we escape its grasp and believes that we may be seeing that happening at present.

Numbers of new cases are rising, which drives other numbers up, so that could very well be happening. Others have suggested that there will be a second wave, but they are predicting it could happen in August or September.

Whatever is happening right now could very well be the beginning of that second wave in Arkansas, but we do not know that for sure. What we do know is that we do not know a lot of things about COVID-19. We do not know exactly how much exposure it takes to infect an individual. We do not know how many people secretly have the virus, but do not show it. We do not know for certain that once people have the virus, they are immune to it from that time forward, though evidence is accumulating to support that theory. Lastly, we know that there is no vaccine that will protect us from the coronavirus available on the market today. That is the only sure thing to eliminate this disease and that is where our hopes and prayers should be concentrated.

We do know that we as individuals must play a major role in what happens from now forward. We owe our governor and the many heroes on the front line who got us to where we are today, to use good judgment in our daily lives. If we ignore social distancing, if we do not wash our hands, or do not wear face masks, or congregate in places where we know we are placing ourselves at
risk, or if we decide not to stay at home when we know that we should, we could very well find ourselves in as bad or worse of a situation than we find ourselves in today, and that would be terribly unfair to those who have worked so hard to get us to this point.

Let’s pause and remember our strong feelings of appreciation we feel for Asa and his people for what they have done to get us to where we are today and not even think of doing those things that can cause us to slide backward to where we came from. We are blessed as a state to have Asa as our governor during these trying times, we have trusted and followed him to this point and we should follow him as he leads us into the new normal.

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Hutchinson’s job approval strong through pandemic and protests, but reopening move risky with public

Gov. Asa Hutchinson remains immensely popular in Arkansas for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and his response to recent social unrest.

Jun 15, 2020

Gov. Asa Hutchinson remains immensely popular in Arkansas for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and his response to recent social unrest. His latest policy move bucks public sentiment and may dent his approval, but he has room to fall.

A new Talk Business & Politics-Hendrix College survey shows Hutchinson with a job approval rating three times higher than his disapproval rating. The poll was taken on Tuesday, June 9 and Wednesday, June 10 of 869 statewide likely voters and has a margin of error of +/-3.3%.

Q: Do you approve or disapprove of the job that Asa Hutchinson is doing as Governor?

62% Approve
19% Disapprove
19% Unsure

“Many governors across the nation have gotten high marks for their handling of COVID-19 and Hutchinson is no exception. Due to the timing of this poll, I would argue that he is being rewarded for his steadiness in the wake of the George Floyd protests, too,” said Roby Brock, Talk Business & Politics Editor-in-Chief.

Hutchinson had a 61%-19% approval rating in the November 2019 Arkansas Poll. He had an 80%-14% job approval in late March 2020 roughly two weeks into the coronavirus pandemic in Arkansas, according to a poll conducted by Little Rock-based Impact Management Group.

While the popular Republican governor has navigated the coronavirus crisis with strong consensus, he is out of the mainstream in his decision on Tuesday to move the state’s economy to Phase Two opening.

Q: Thinking about the state’s restrictions on business due to the coronavirus pandemic, do you think Gov. Hutchinson is lifting restrictions too quickly, lifting restrictions too slowly, or handling restrictions about right?

44% About right
32% Too quickly
20% Too slowly
4% Unsure

“The call to reopen the state’s economy more urgently is only supported by one in five voters. The governor does risk a lot of political capital if the pandemic situation spirals further out of control. We’ve seen a huge rise in cases in Phase One, so this move to Phase Two is going to be a test for his leadership as well as public safety,” Brock said.

This latest Talk Business & Politics-Hendrix College poll will release more results over the next four days, including:

  • Sen. Tom Cotton job approval
  • President Donald Trump job approval
  • Trump vs. Joe Biden matchup
  • Questions regarding race, policing and protests
  • Legalized marijuana
  • Playing college football this fall

ANALYSIS
Dr. Jay Barth, emeritus professor of politics at Hendrix College, helped craft and analyze the latest poll. He offered this analysis of the poll results:

“Throughout over five years as governor, Asa Hutchinson’s performance has remained overwhelmingly approved by Arkansas voters. During the last three months his governorship has been dominated by the COVID-19 crisis and unrest across the state in response to the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. Arkansas voters have continued to value his leadership during this highly visible period of his governorship with over six in ten voters approving of his job performance during this period. What is most telling is his strong standing among Arkansans who do not identify as Republicans; over 40% of Democrats and over 60% of Independents approve of his performance during this period when Hutchinson has given daily briefings. While Hutchinson’s standing is consistent across most demographic groups, there is a strong relationship between age and approval of the governor; the youngest voters are most likely to be critical of the governor’s performance while over three in four of those 65 or older approve of it.

“Our survey was completed just as Governor Hutchinson announced his decision for the entire state to shift to Phase Two of the reopening of the state’s economy. The results of the poll suggest that the Governor may have gotten a bit out in front of public opinion on this issue as only one in five voters think that the state was moving too slowly in its reopening. A plurality of voters (44%) felt that the reopening was happening at the right pace, while just over three in ten felt that the reopening was occurring too quickly considering the public health risks.

“Some interesting patterns show themselves across political and demographic subgroups. Republicans are the group most likely to approve that Hutchinson’s approach to date has been correct but also to feel that reopening should happen more quickly. Over 60% of Democrats, however, feel that the reopening has been occurring too briskly. Younger voters (those under 45) also are more likely to state that reopening has been occurring too quickly. A subtle gender gap also shows itself on this issue; while similar pluralities of women and men voice support for the current pace of reopening, more women support slowing the pace while more men favor quickening the reopening of the state’s economy.”

Robert Coon, managing partner with Impact Management Group, also helped craft and analyze the latest poll. He offered this analysis of the poll results:

“Gov. Asa Hutchinson continues to maintain broad approval among Arkansas voters (62%). Hutchinson’s popularity is anchored by Republican voters, 79% of whom approve of the job he’s doing compared to only 10% who disapprove. Hutchinson has strong support among Independents (64% approve), while a plurality of Democrats approve of the job he’s doing (43%). Notably, Hutchinson has nearly the same level of approval from white voters (63%) as he does among black voters (57%). Hutchinson’s ability to appeal to voters across both party and racial lines explain why he consistently polls as one of the top governors in the country.

“Overall, 44% of Arkansas voters believe Governor Hutchinson is handling restrictions on business related to coronavirus ‘about right,’ but there are measurable differences across several demographics – specifically age and party. A plurality (45%) of voters under the age of 45 believe that the governor is opening businesses ‘too quickly.’ Conversely, among voters over the age of 45 the predominant view is that he’s handling things ‘about right’ (49%). Along party lines, 63% of Democrats believe the state is moving ‘too quickly,’ compared to only 8% of Republicans and 30% of Independents who share the same view. While the Governor has gotten pressure in recent weeks to speed up the reopening process from members of his own party, more than half of Republican voters (53%) surveyed indicated he’s handled things ‘about right.’ Overall, only 1 in 5 (20%) voters surveyed said that the state was lifting restrictions ‘too slowly.’ With the governor’s announcement that Arkansas will be moving to Phase Two, and the recent increases in both positive cases and hospitalizations, it will be interesting to see whether voters view that decision as a continuation of the right speed, or a step too fast.”

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