The Daily Signal - ‘Goal Is to Protect Children,’ Arkansas State Rep. Robin Lundstrum Says of New SAFE Act

Episode Date: April 8, 2021

Arkansas has just become the first state in the country to pass legislation protecting minors from being prescribed puberty blockers or gender-hormone treatments, or receiving gender-change surgery. Arkansas state Rep. Robin Lundstrum, the lead sponsor for the bill, joins the “Problematic Women” podcast to explain why the passage of the act is a victory for children and families. Lundstrum also explains why she thinks the bill has faced so much opposition from the political left.  We also cover these stories: Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer tells Democrats they need to “think long and hard” about court packing. Small businesses are the big losers in Major League Baseball’s decision to move the All-Star Game from Atlanta, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp tells the Washington Examiner.   Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul asks Republicans to boycott Coca-Cola after it came out against Georgia’s new election law.  Enjoy the show! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Thursday, April 8th. I'm Rachel Del Judas. And I'm Virginia Allen. Arkansas has just become the first state to legally protect children from being prescribed puberty blockers or receiving gender hormone treatments or surgeries. On today's show, we are joined by Arkansas State Representative Robin Ludstrom, the lead sponsor of the Save Adolescence from Experimentation or Safe Act. Representative Ludstrom explains why this bill is so.

so critical for children and families in her state and why the bill faced opposition from the Arkansas governor. Don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please be sure to leave a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Now on to our top news. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told Democrats they need to think long and hard about court packing. In a Tuesday speech to faculty and students at Harvard Law School, Breyer said he sought to

make those whose initial instincts may favor important structural or other similar institutional changes, such as forms of court packing, think long and hard before embodying those changes in law. He also said that he and his colleagues on the high court attempt to stay away from politics. The more the political fray is hot and intense, the more we stay out of it, he said. Small businesses are the big losers in Major League Baseball's decision to move the All-Star game from Atlanta, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp told the Washington Examiner. The All-Star Game is now set to take place in Denver, Colorado. The MLB decided to move the game after Georgia passed a new voting bill to guard against voter fraud. Governor Kemp said that if you think about

the industries that have been hit the hardest in Georgia because of COVID, it's the business travel, the tourism, and then all the service industry tied to them, like small restaurants, caverns, the hotel, lodging folks, caterers, and event people. I mean, those are all the folks to me that are going to be just at a big loss here because Major League Baseball pulled the rug out from under them. It is all very unfortunate. The Brave Stadium where the All-Star game was set to take place is located in Cobb County, Georgia, a county that is 28% black with over 31,000 small businesses owned by minorities, the Washington Examiner Report. In comparison, Denver's black population is 9.8% and has about 18,000 small businesses owned by minorities, per the examiner.

Kemp said that the people of Georgia are furious, adding that I'm not talking about just Republicans. I mean, look, I hate this has happened in our state, especially with the bill that we have. It's very unfair. If we had taken something away, if we were restricting voting, if we were being suppressive or whatever, I wouldn't have a leg to stand on, but that's not what's happening here. Kemp says he will not cave to corporate pressure on the bill because it's a good bill. Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul is asking Republicans to boycott Coca-Cola after it came out against George's new election law.

Here's what he had to say on Fox News. Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, he says that maybe it is time for Republicans to begin the boycott operation. start with perhaps the MLB. Senator, good to see you today. Thanks, right, man. Do you think that's the way to combat this, to do sort of an eye for an eye? Well, you know, they started it.

Major League Baseball wants to boycott the whole state of Georgia, including Atlanta. They've already gotten rid of the All-Star game and the draft, and they're doing it because they don't like a Republican law. A law that actually expands voting, and doesn't contract voting. Georgia now has more early voting than New York has.

So it's kind of ridiculous. Even the facts don't mate. don't meet what they're what they're trying to do. But my point is, yeah, if they want to boycott us, why don't we boycott them? This is the only thing that will teach them lesson. If Coca-Cola wants to only operate in Democrat states and wants only Democrats to drink Coca-Cola, God love them. We'll see how why they do when half of the country quits drinking Coca-Cola, when half the country

quits using Delta. So the thing is, is they're all woke, but they're really doing something that is against the financial interest of every business. Publicly traded businesses usually don't get involved. with politics because it hurts their bottom lines to make up the country unhappy. Now stay tuned for my conversation with Arkansas State Representative Robin Ludstrom, as we talk about Arkansas becoming the first state to pass legislation protecting minors from being prescribed puberty blockers, gender hormone treatments, or from receiving

gender change surgery. Never has it been more important for us to fight for America. Each day, we see the penalties of progressive policies across our nation. Our elections are under assault. Our economic freedom is on the decline, and our culture is turning its back on the founding principles that have made us the freest, most prosperous nation in history.

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America today. I am so pleased to be joined by Arkansas State Representative Robin Ludstrom. Representative Lusdram, thank you so much for being here. Thank you for having me. You are the lead sponsor of the Save Adolescence from Experimentation or Safe Act. And over the past week or so, we have heard a lot in the news about this act, and we're going to get into the politics of it in just a moment. But first, could you just tell us a little bit about what this bill will do? Well, what this bill will do is it will protect adolescents from experimentation when it comes to sex change procedures, both chemically and surgically.

And that's all the bill does. It doesn't take away any health care. It doesn't take away counseling. It just stops cross-sex hormones from. being given to children, and then when they're 18, they can make those decisions. And that's very important to give them time to make good decisions when it comes to their health. This bill has been through quite the political process. The Arkansas State House and Senate passed the legislation at the end of March.

Then the Arkansas governor, Aza Hutchinson, he vetoed the bill. But on Tuesday, the Arkansas legislature overrode the governor's veto and passed the bill, making Arkansas the first state to pass and implement this kind of legislation. What was the process like for you and why was it important to override the governor's veto? First of all, I didn't know the veto was coming until the governor called me Monday. And I never would have imagined seven or eight months ago when this started that it would be the roller coaster ride that it has turned out to be. I knew it would be difficult. I had no illusions there, but never did.

I think it would make this type of twist and turns because the whole goal is to protect children. It's not anti-any-one. It's simply saying, let's pump the brakes. Let's not do anything to adolescents during puberty that would harm their growth, harm them cardiovascular disease is an issue. Obviously, this will stunt growth. and obviously this impacts their brain development. So to me, protecting adolescence is the whole goal.

When it passed the House, it passed the House with 70 votes. And actually, a couple of the co-sponsors couldn't be there that day, so it would have been a little bit higher. And had 22 no votes and eight that were not in voting that just either couldn't be there for some reason or another or just didn't vote. And then when it went to the Senate, it had 28 Senate votes.

So it was pretty overwhelming. That's a really good indication that a lot of people in Arkansas are concerned about adolescents. So when it landed on the governor's desk, he has time to look at all the bills and to contemplate, and that's good. And he chose to veto. And once the governor issues a letter of veto, then there's a very specific. orchestrated process of overriding a veto because that is very serious. And it's something that's not taken lightly. You go to the well once the governor's letter is read and you present your case to the body and

then the body decides whether or not to override the veto. And that usually happens pretty quickly. And we actually had 72 votes to override the veto, 24 knows. and then it immediately went to the Senate floor where it received 25 votes and the veto was overridden. I mean, that is such a large majority for both of the votes that took place in the State House and the Senate. Do you think that that support that was seen in the Arkansas legislature is representative of how the people of your state feel about this bill? Yes, I do.

People want to protect children. And I think that's people on both sides of the aisle. I know people have made this a political agenda. It's not. Children deserve to be protected. And we protect children from the moment they're born. You can't take a child home from the hospital without a car seat. And in Arkansas, we don't allow a child to drink until 21.

And you can't have a tattoo. Can't rent an apartment. can't open a bank account, can't buy cough syrup or a can of spray paint. And you can even change your name. Why would we allow them to alter their body chemically or surgically in such a drastic fashion that you can't take back? I think someday we're going to have some children looking back and wondering where all the adults were. So here we are.

Governor Hutchinson, he said he vetoed the bill because it constituted. a legislative overreach. Why do you disagree with the governor? Well, we make decisions all the time in the legislature to put down markers about what we want to do as far as protecting children, health care, schools. We make decisions all the time, whether it's a speed limit or something much more substantive as protecting children. And I don't think it's a legislative overreach for us to say, no, you can't harm a child because this is not an FDA approved drug. When you give a puberty blocker to a 13 or 14 year old and then you give cross sex hormones to that 13 or 14 year old, you are altering that child's body. And it has long term implications. And these drugs aren't approved to do that with a child.

So we need to put down something and say, no, you can't do that to a child and have, because this impacts the rest of their life. This isn't something small. This is something large. And I think that's something that we need, a very serious thought process and protecting children. People run into a burning building for one child. Why would we not have a serious debate for 200? And I think they're worth it. Right after the Arkansas state legislature overrode the government.

governor's veto of the bill. The American Civil Liberties Union tweeted, they said, quote, the Arkansas legislature overrode Governor Hutchinson's veto on HB1570, a bill that would ban health care for trans youth. We are preparing litigation as we speak. What kind of legal battles do you expect moving forward around this legislation and maybe similar pieces of legislation? Well, they're certainly entitled to do everything that they want to do. I would argue that we didn't ban health care for anyone. I think that's a lie. I think that's a bold-faced lie. That shows me they haven't read the bill.

We haven't taken away health care from anyone. We haven't taken away counseling from anyone. This isn't health care to alter a child's body and use an experimental process on a child's body. There are going to be children someday that are, going to turn around as adults and sue doctors for experimenting on them. And they're going to wonder where the doctors were the adults and where their parents were. My heart goes out to parents. They're being put in a terrible situation.

They're being told that their child is suicidal if they don't do that. And that is simply not true. There are children that need counseling. Gender dysphoria and gender distress is a truly medical situation. They need counseling and care, not experimentation. So what would you say to someone who would argue that this bill is cruel to minors who are struggling with gender dysphoria, who are struggling with their own gender? This bill doesn't take away their health care. This bill, I want them to go get counseling.

They need counseling. Most kids that struggle with gender distress, about 85 to 95 percent, if left alone, will come out of that on their own. but with counseling, their outcomes improved tremendously. So why would we not give them counseling and let them work through the process and give them counseling skills and skills to overcome this and skills to work through the process? Why in the world would we give them medications that aren't meant for that? And transgender children have a 19 times higher suicide rate than their peers. That should be alarming.

And one of the reasons that they do is because of the drugs that we put in these children. That's scary to me. I think that as an American and as a mom, that's horrifying. We should see these kids as precious and as valuable, not as something to experiment on. Are there other states that are considering similar legislation? Yes, there are about 18 other states that are also looking at this legislation or running this legislation. We just happen to be the first one to say that children are important enough to stand up and take the slings and arrows and stand up for children. I think that's something to be proud of.

I think that's something to let those kids know that you're worth standing up for. Representative, before we let you go, I just want to give you the final word. You are the lead sponsor of the Save Adolescence from experimentation or Safe Act. Why was this an issue that was so important for you? I think standing by and watching children be harmed and not doing something is wrong. And I think as legislators, when we see something wrong and we don't act, it's on us. And I want to encourage those parents and those children out there that we see you, we care about you. and hopefully this will help and someday these children can grow up and make their own decisions

and they'll have healthy bodies to make those decisions with. Excellent. Representative, thank you for your time. Oh, thank you. Thank you for having me and thank you for doing your research and including me. It's been really disheartening to see people like the ACLU put out that we've closed off health care or removed health care and counseling. That's the last thing I want to see for this group of kids just needs a lot of love and

needs real health care. And it's just disheartening when they put stuff like that out. And that'll do it for today's episode. Thanks for listening to the Daily Signal podcast. You can find the Daily Signal podcast on Google Play, Apple Podcast, Spotify, and IHeartRadio. Please be sure to leave us to review and a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts and encourage others to subscribe. Thanks again for listening and we'll be back with you. you all tomorrow. The Daily Signal podcast is brought to you by more than half a million members

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