A Missouri judge ruled Monday that the state's ban on transgender surgeries and hormone treatments for minors is constitutional, just days before the U.S. Supreme Court will take up a similar case in Tennessee. That was a little over a week ago.
Judge Robert Craig Carter addressed the opacity behind the controversial treatment for gender dysphoria in his ruling on a challenge by LGBTQ civil rights activists to the Save Youth from Experimentation Act, which was signed into law last year. Emphasized ethics.
Judge Carter of Missouri's 44th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote in a lengthy statement that “the evidence at trial demonstrated that there is no established medical ethics regarding the treatment of gender dysphoria in children and adolescents.'' 72 page judgment.
“Everyone, including minors, will have access to everything from meth to ecstasy to abortion, as long as a single medical professional is willing to recommend it,” he later warned.
Missouri Gov. Mike Parson (R) signed the law into law last year, and it went into effect in August 2023. The law also established a three-year ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for minors unless they are undergoing treatment.
The measure includes the possibility of loss of medical licenses for doctors who ignore the law, as well as the ability for patients to sue for at least 15 years and, if successful, damages of at least $500,000. Penalties such as:
Carter also pointed to a 2007 Supreme Court decision that concluded that state legislatures' options must be “very broad” in cases “fraught with medical and scientific uncertainty.”
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (R) quickly won a victory over the ruling.
“The court left in place Missouri law prohibiting child mutilation. This is a huge victory for children. We are the first state in the nation to successfully defend such a law at the trial level. ” Bailey said in a statement..
“I am extremely proud that my office has spent thousands of hours shining a light on the lack of evidence supporting these irreversible proceedings. We will never stop fighting to ensure we are the safest state in the world.”
Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Missouri both condemned the ruling and said they would appeal.
“The court’s findings signal an alarming acceptance of discrimination, ignore extensive court records and the voices of transgender Missourians and their caregivers, and “Denies Medicaid recipients the right to frequently access evidence-based, effective and life-saving medical care,” they say. asserted in a joint statement.
This law is scheduled to be repealed in 2027.
The ruling appears to make Missouri the first state in which a trial court has upheld such a ban. At least 26 states have similar policies in place, and 24 states and the nation's capital have enacted laws protecting access to such interventions.
Critics argue that minors are too young to consent to interventions aimed at altering their hormones or altering their genitals.
In 2021, approximately 4,231 hormone treatments will be performed on minors between the ages of 6 and 17, and 1,390 puberty blocker treatments will be performed on minors between the ages of 6 and 17. We performed 282 mastectomies for gender dysphoria in girls between the ages of 13 and 17. According to data from Komodo Health Inc..
According to the dataset, cases of diagnosed gender dysphoria among minors jumped from 15,172 in 2017 to 42,167 in 2021.
Next week, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in United States v. Scumetti, one of the hottest topics on this term's docket.
The case calls into question Tennessee's ban on any treatment for “minors identifying with or living as an identity that does not correspond to the minor's gender.” are.
The outgoing Biden administration is supporting the challengers in the lawsuit, who argue the ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
President-elect Donald Trump previously promised to push legislation that would limit so-called gender-affirming care interventions for minors.
President Trump, 78, is also reportedly considering banning transgender people from serving in the military. British media “The Times”, reported.
Tesla giant Elon Musk, who will soon be a close aide to the 47th president during the transition period, further said on Monday: approved Prohibition of federal government gender transition procedures for children.
