Arkansas Code of 1987 (2023) › Title 20 - PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE (§§ 20-2-101 — 20-86-113) › Subtitle 2 - HEALTH AND SAFETY (§§ 20-6-101 — 20-38-113) › Chapter 9 - HEALTH FACILITIES AND SERVICES GENERALLY (§§ 20-9-101 — 20-9-1504) › Subchapter 15 - ARKANSAS SAVE ADOLESCENTS FROM EXPERIMENTATION (SAFE) › Section 20-9-1501 - Definitions

As used in this subchapter:
(1)
"Biological sex" means the biological indication of male and female in the context of reproductive potential or capacity, such as sex chromosomes, naturally occurring sex hormones, gonads, and nonambiguous internal and external genitalia present at birth, without regard to an individual's psychological, chosen, or subjective experience of gender;
(2)
"Cross-sex hormones" means:
(A)
Testosterone or other androgens given to biological females in amounts that are larger or more potent than would normally occur naturally in healthy biological sex females; and
(B)
Estrogen given to biological males in amounts that are larger or more potent than would normally occur naturally in healthy biological sex males;
(3)
"Gender" means the psychological, behavioral, social, and cultural aspects of being male or female;
(4)
"Gender reassignment surgery" means any medical or surgical service that seeks to surgically alter or remove healthy physical or anatomical characteristics or features that are typical for the individual's biological sex, in order to instill or create physiological or anatomical characteristics that resemble a sex different from the individual's biological sex, including without limitation, genital or nongenital gender reassignment surgery performed for the purpose of assisting an individual with a gender transition;
(5)
"Gender transition" means the process in which a person goes from identifying with and living as a gender that corresponds to his or her biological sex to identifying with and living as a gender different from his or her biological sex, and may involve social, legal, or physical changes;
(6)
(A)
"Gender transition procedures" means any medical or surgical service, including without limitation physician's services, inpatient and outpatient hospital services, or prescribed drugs related to gender transition that seeks to:
(i)
Alter or remove physical or anatomical characteristics or features that are typical for the individual's biological sex; or
(ii)
Instill or create physiological or anatomical characteristics that resemble a sex different from the individual's biological sex, including without limitation medical services that provide puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, or other mechanisms to promote the development of feminizing or masculinizing features in the opposite biological sex, or genital or nongenital gender reassignment surgery performed for the purpose of assisting an individual with a gender transition.
(B)
"Gender transition procedures" do not include:
(i)
Services to persons born with a medically verifiable disorder of sex development, including a person with external biological sex characteristics that are irresolvably ambiguous, such as those born with 46 XX chromosomes with virilization, 46 XY chromosomes with undervirilization, or having both ovarian and testicular tissue;
(ii)
Services provided when a physician has otherwise diagnosed a disorder of sexual development that the physician has determined through genetic or biochemical testing that the person does not have normal sex chromosome structure, sex steroid hormone production, or sex steroid hormone action;
(iii)
The treatment of any infection, injury, disease, or disorder that has been caused by or exacerbated by the performance of gender transition procedures, whether or not the gender transition procedure was performed in accordance with state and federal law or whether or not funding for the gender transition procedure is permissible under this subchapter; or
(iv)
Any procedure undertaken because the individual suffers from a physical disorder, physical injury, or physical illness that would, as certified by a physician, place the individual in imminent danger of death or impairment of major bodily function unless surgery is performed;
(7)
"Genital gender reassignment surgery" means a medical procedure performed for the purpose of assisting an individual with a gender transition, including without limitation:
(A)
Surgical procedures such as penectomy, orchiectomy, vaginoplasty, clitoroplasty, or vulvoplasty for biologically male patients or hysterectomy or ovariectomy for biologically female patients;
(B)
Reconstruction of the fixed part of the urethra with or without a metoidioplasty; or
(C)
Phalloplasty, vaginectomy, scrotoplasty, or implantation of erection or testicular prostheses for biologically female patients;
(8)
"Healthcare professional" means a person who is licensed, certified, or otherwise authorized by the laws of this state to administer health care in the ordinary course of the practice of his or her profession;
(9)
"Nongenital gender reassignment surgery" means medical procedures performed for the purpose of assisting an individual with a gender transition including without limitation:
(A)
Surgical procedures for biologically male patients, such as augmentation mammoplasty, facial feminization surgery, liposuction, lipofilling, voice surgery, thyroid cartilage reduction, gluteal augmentation, hair reconstruction, or various aesthetic procedures; or
(B)
Surgical procedures for biologically female patients, such as subcutaneous mastectomy, voice surgery, liposuction, lipofilling, pectoral implants, or various aesthetic procedures;
(10)
"Physician" means a person who is licensed to practice medicine in this state;
(11)
"Puberty-blocking drugs" means gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues or other synthetic drugs used in biological males to stop luteinizing hormone secretion and therefore testosterone secretion, or synthetic drugs used in biological females which stop the production of estrogens and progesterone, when used to delay or suppress pubertal development in children for the purpose of assisting an individual with a gender transition; and
(12)
"Public funds" means state, county, or local government monies, in addition to any department, agency, or instrumentality authorized or appropriated under state law or derived from any fund in which such moneys are deposited.
Added by Act 2021, No. 626,§ 3, eff. 7/28/2021.