H.R. 4618 — Jamie Reed Protecting Our Kids from Child Abuse Act

This section establishes civil liability for pediatric gender clinics, medical practitioners at such clinics or who perform gender-transition procedures, institutions of higher education (as defined in section 101 of the Higher Education Act of 1965), and hospitals that host, operate, partner with, provide funding to, or are otherwise affiliated with such clinics, for bodily injury or mental health harm to an individual attributable to a gender-transition procedure performed when the individual was a minor (i.e., under 18 years of age). It defines gender-transition procedure as the prescription or administration of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgeries to minors to align the body with a gender identity discordant with biological sex, excluding interventions for those with inherently ambiguous sex characteristics or certain genetic/biochemical disorders, treatments for complications from such procedures, or procedures necessary to avert imminent death or major bodily impairment. An affected individual may bring a civil action in federal or state court not later than 30 years after turning 18 for compensatory damages, punitive damages, and attorney's fees and costs, with an affirmative defense available if the clinic or performing practitioner did not know and had no reason to know the individual was a minor.

This section prohibits federal funds from being made available (1) to a pediatric gender clinic; (2) to an institution of higher education or hospital that hosts, operates, partners with, provides funding to, or is otherwise affiliated with, a pediatric gender clinic; or (3) for any gender-transition procedure performed on a minor.

This section includes a severability clause stating that if any provision of the Act, or its application to any person or circumstance, is held unconstitutional, the remainder of the Act and its other provisions remain in effect.