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HB2085 - 572R - H Ver
House Engrossed
gender transition;
minors; prohibitions.
State of Arizona
House of Representatives
Fifty-seventh Legislature
Second Regular Session
2026
HOUSE BILL 2085
AN
ACT
Amending section 32-3230, Arizona Revised
Statutes; relating to health professionals.
(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Section 32-3230, Arizona Revised
Statutes, is amended to read:
START_STATUTE
32-3230.
Minors; irreversible gender reassignment surgery; gender
transition procedures; referrals; prohibition; use of public monies prohibited;
right of action; enforcement; definitions
A. A physician
or other health
professional
may not
do any of the following:
1. Provide irreversible gender reassignment surgery
to any individual who is under eighteen years of age.
2.
provide
a gender transition procedure to any individual who is under eighteen years of
age.
3. refer any individual who is under
eighteen years of age to another HEALTH professional for a gender transition
procedure.
B. A physician
or other health
professional
may provide any of the following to an individual who is
under eighteen years of age:
1. Services to an individual born with a medically
verifiable disorder of sex development, including an individual with external
biological sex characteristics that are irresolvably ambiguous, such as being
born with forty-six XX chromosomes with virilization or forty-six
XY chromosomes with undervirilization or having both ovarian and
testicular tissue.
2. Services
provided
when a
physician has otherwise diagnosed a disorder of sexual development and has
determined through genetic or biochemical testing that the individual does not
have normal sex chromosome structure, sex steroid hormone production or sex
steroid hormone action.
3. 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.
4. 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.
C. Public monies may not be directly
or indirectly used, granted, paid or distributed to any individual, entity or
organization that provides gender transition procedures to any individual who
is under eighteen years of age. in providing Health care services, A
gender transition procedure may not be provided to any individual who is under
eighteen years of age in the following situations:
1. By or in a health care facility
owned by this state or a county or local government.
2. By a physician or other health
professional who is employed by this state or a county or local government.
D. The Arizona health care cost
containment system may not provide reimbursement of costs or coverage for a
gender transition procedure to any individual who is under eighteen years of
age.
E. Any health professional who makes
a referral for or provides a gender transition procedure to any individual who
is under eighteen years of age commits unprofessional conduct and is subject to
discipline by the appropriate licensing entity or health profession regulatory
board.
F. An individual may assert an actual
or threatened violation of this section as a claim or defense in a judicial or
administrative proceeding and obtain compensatory damages, injunctive relief,
declaratory relief or any other appropriate relief. An individual
shall bring a claim for a violation of this section not later than two years
after the date the cause of action accrues. An individual who is
under eighteen years of age may bring an action throughout the individual's
minority through a parent or next friend and may bring an action in the
individual's own name on attaining eighteen years of age until twenty years
after attaining eighteen years of age.
G. Notwithstanding any other law, an
action under this section may be commenced and relief may be granted in a
judicial proceeding without regard to whether the individual commencing the
action has sought or exhausted available administrative remedies. In
any action or proceeding to enforce this section, a prevailing party who
establishes a violation of this section shall recover reasonable attorney fees.
H. The attorney general may bring an
action to enforce compliance with this section. This section does
not deny, impair or otherwise affect any right or authority of the attorney
general, this state or any agency, officer or employee of this state, acting
under any law other than this section, to institute or intervene in any
proceeding.
C.
I.
For
the purposes of this section:
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 either of the following:
(
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.
(
b
) Estrogen
given to biological males in amounts that are larger or more potent than would
normally occur naturally in healthy biological sex males.
2.
3.
"Gender"
means the psychological, behavioral, social and cultural aspects of being male
or female.
3.
4.
"Gender
transition" means the process in which
a person
an individual
goes from identifying with and living as a gender
that corresponds to the
person's
individual's
biological sex to identifying with and living as a gender different from
the
person's
individual's
biological
sex and may involve social, legal or physical changes.
5. "Gender transition
procedure":
(
a
) Means any
medical or surgical service, including physician services, inpatient and
outpatient hospital services or prescribed drugs related to gender transition,
that seeks to either:
(
i
) Alter or
remove physical or anatomical characteristics or features that are typical for
an individual's biological sex.
(
ii
) Instill or
create physical or anatomical characteristics that resemble a sex different
from an individual's biological sex, including medical services that provide
puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones or other mechanisms to promote the
development of feminizing or masculinizing features in an individual of the
opposite biological sex or genital or nongenital gender reassignment surgery
performed for the purpose of assisting an individual with a gender transition.
(
b
) Does not
include any of the following:
(
i
) Services to
individuals born with a medically verifiable disorder of sex development,
including an individual with external biological sex characteristics that are
irresolvably ambiguous, such as being born with forty-six XX chromosomes with
virilization or forty-six 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 and has determined through genetic or biochemical testing that the
individual 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 or
exacerbated by the performance of a gender transition procedure, 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 allowable
under this section.
(
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 a major
bodily function unless surgery is performed.
4.
6.
"Irreversible
gender reassignment surgery" means a medical procedure performed for the
purpose of assisting an individual with a gender transition, including any of
the following:
(a) Penectomy, orchiectomy, vaginoplasty,
clitoroplasty or vulvoplasty for biologically male patients or hysterectomy or
ovariectomy for biologically female patients.
(b) Metoidioplasty, phalloplasty, vaginectomy,
scrotoplasty or implantation of erection or testicular prostheses for
biologically female patients.
(c) Augmentation mammoplasty for biologically male
patients and subcutaneous mastectomy for female patients.
5.
7.
"Physician"
means a person who is licensed pursuant to chapter 13 or 17 of this title.
8. "Puberty-blocking drugs"
means either of the following when used to delay or suppress pubertal
development in children for the purpose of assisting an individual with a
gender transition:�
(
a
) Gonadotropin-releasing
hormone analogs or other synthetic drugs used in biological sex males to stop
luteinizing hormone secretion and testosterone secretion.
(
b
) Synthetic
drugs used in biological sex females to stop the production of estrogens and
progesterone.
9. "Public monies":
(
a
) means
state, county or local government monies.
(
b
) Includes
monies authorized or appropriated to any department, agency or instrumentality
under state law or derived from any fund in which those monies are deposited.
END_STATUTE
Sec. 2.
Effective date;
purpose
A. This act is effective
from and after March 31, 2027.
B. The effective date of
this act is delayed so that minors in this state who are currently using
puberty-blocking drugs or cross-sex hormones have time for
appropriate medication tapering and discontinuation under the care of the
minor's physician or other health professional.