WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court Overturning lower courts, allowing Idaho to enforce its ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth while lawsuits over the law continue.
Monday’s ruling by the justices allows the state to pass a 2023 law that would punish doctors with up to 10 years in prison if they provide hormones, puberty blockers or other drugs. gender-affirming care To persons under 18 years of age. Two transgender teenagers who went to court to challenge the law will still be able to receive care, the court ruled.
The court’s three liberal justices would uphold the law.
A federal judge in Idaho blocked the law entirely after determining it was necessary to protect the teenagers, who are identified in court documents by their pseudonyms.
Opponents of the law said it would increase suicide rates among teenagers. Supporters of the law said it was necessary to “protect children from medical or surgical treatments” for gender dysphoria, even though there is little evidence that gender-affirming surgeries are being performed on transgender youth in Idaho.
Gender-affirming care for youth is supported by every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association.
Medical professionals define gender dysphoria as severe psychological distress experienced by those whose gender identity differs from the gender assigned at birth.
The move comes as the courts may soon consider whether to lift injunctions that an appeals court in Kentucky and Tennessee allowed to be imposed amid the legal battle.
At least 23 states have passed laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors, and most of those states have faced lawsuits. A federal judge Overturned Arkansas’ ban unconstitutionally. Montana’s ban has also been temporarily suspended.
States that have passed laws restricting or prohibiting gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors include Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North . Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and West Virginia.