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PROVO — The author of Utah's law restricting gender-related surgeries and hormone treatments for minors now wants to make it easier for patients who go on to regret such treatments to sue their doctor.

Rep. Mike Kennedy, a former state senator who was elected to Congress in 2024, is helping sponsor a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would let patients who received treatment to help them transition their gender as minors sue their health care provider, hospital or clinic for damages if they come to regret their decision and to cover any costs of later detransitioning.

The bill would extend the statute of limitations for such lawsuits to 25 years from the child's 18th birthday or four years after the cost of detransition is incurred, whichever is later. It would also prevent doctors from waiving liability for any complications that arise as a result of such treatments.

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"It gives doctors, hospitals and anybody in the nation that steps into this area a due notice that they need to be very careful about what they're doing," Kennedy told KSL. "Frankly, I think it's going to have a chilling effect upon those that are in a fairly cavalier fashion doing these dangerous procedures on our children throughout the country."

"This is to help ensure that children are safe," he added.

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The congressman, who practiced family medicine before joining Congress, said he wants to see further research on the benefits and drawbacks of gender-related care, but he wants to protect children and teenagers from procedures with potentially lifelong impacts.

"When it comes to children, when we're not sure based on science and evidence, we ought to do everything we can to protect the children," Kennedy said.

This post was edited on 3/9/26 at 9:10 pm