Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Tennessee’s law banning the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries on minors does not violate the Constitution. Six of the nine justices disagreed that the law ran afoul of the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause..
Texas passed its own law prohibiting gender modification on children in 2023 just a few months after Tennessee. The ruling likely ensures the Texas law – and the 26 other state laws like it – will survive any future legal challenges.
The Court rejected the plaintiff’s argument that certain drugs, like puberty blockers, are used on minors for a legitimate medical purpose and that banning them for so-called gender modification was sex discrimination. That didn’t fly with Chief Justice Roberts who wrote the opinion for the Court.
“Notably absent from their framing is a key aspect of any medical treatment: the underlying medical concern the treatment is intended to address,” he wrote. In other words, the state isn’t denying the use of a certain drug based on sex but rather prohibiting it for a specific treatment.
And with good reason. The U.S. Health and Human Services Department just released a report concluding, “Despite increasing pressure to promote these drastic medical interventions for our nation’s youth, the review makes clear: the science and evidence do not support their use, and the risks cannot be ignored.”
Unfortunately, Texas liberals are still defending this abhorrent practice. As we commend this significant victory, we must stay vigilant.
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