LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) – A federal judge struck down Arkansas’ first-in-the-nation ban on gender-affirming child care as unconstitutional Tuesday, the first ruling to overturn such ban as a growing number of Republicans. lead states adopt similar restrictions.
U.S. District Judge Jay Moody issued a permanent injunction against the Arkansas law, which would have prohibited doctors from providing hormone treatment, puberty blockers or surgery to under-18s.
The Arkansas law, which Moody blocked temporarily in 2021, also would have prohibited doctors from referring patients elsewhere for such care. At least 19 other states have enacted laws restricting or banning care for gender-affirming minors following Arkansas’ law, and nearly all have been challenged in court.
In his order, Moody ruled that the ban violated the due process and equal protection rights of transgender youth and families. He said the law also violated the First Amendment rights of medical providers.
“Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics, the evidence showed that prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that, by prohibiting it, the state undermined the interests that it says moving forward,” Moody wrote in his opinion.
Moody’s ruling echoed comments the justices have made in other decisions temporarily blocking similar bans in Alabama and Indiana.
Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin said in a statement that he planned to appeal Moody’s ruling to the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which last year upheld the judge’s temporary order against the law Griffin said he was disappointed with the ruling and called health care “experimental,” an argument that the judge’s ruling said was refuted by decades of clinical experience and scientific research.
Republican Arkansas lawmakers enacted the ban in 2021, overriding former Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto. Hutchinson, who left office in January and is now seeking the Republican presidential nomination, said the law went too far in cutting off treatments for children currently receiving such care.
The ruling affects only the Arkansas ban, but may have implications for the fate of similar bans, or discourage attempts to enact them in other states.
“This decision sends a clear message. The fear and misinformation about this health care doesn’t stand up to scrutiny; it’s hurting trans youth and it needs to end,” said Holly Dickson, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. ‘Arkansas. “Science, medicine and the law are clear: gender-affirming care is needed to ensure these young Arkansans can thrive and be healthy.”
The ACLU challenged the law on behalf of four transgender youth and their families and two doctors.
The ruling comes as even more states are poised to enact bans on care for transgender youth. Louisiana’s Democratic governor has said he intends to veto a similar ban, though the Republican legislature likely has the votes to override it. Proposed bans are also pending in the legislatures of North Carolina and Ohio.
Three states have banned or restricted the care through regulations or administrative orders.
The Florida law goes beyond banning treatment for youth, as it also prohibits the use of state money for gender-affirmation care and imposes new restrictions on adults seeking treatment. A federal judge has blocked Florida from enforcing its ban on three children who challenged the law.
Children’s hospitals across the country have faced harassment and threats of violence to provide this care.
The state has argued that the ban is within its authority to regulate the medical profession. People who oppose these treatments for children argue that they are too young to make such decisions about their future. Major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, oppose the bans, and experts say the treatments are safe if administered properly.
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Hutchinson’s successor, signed legislation in March that sought to effectively reinstate Arkansas’ ban by making it easier to demand gender-sensitive child care providers. This law will not go into effect until the end of the summer.
Sanders on Tuesday called the care “activists pushing a political agenda at the expense of our children.”
“Only in the far left’s woke view of America is it inappropriate to protect children,” Sanders tweeted.
A trial about two weeks before Moody’s included testimony from one of the transgender youth challenging the state’s ban. Dylan Brandt, 17, said in October that the hormone therapy he has received has transformed his life and that the ban would force him to leave the state.
“I am so grateful that the judge listened to my experience of how this health care has changed my life for the better and saw the dangerous impact this law could have on my life and the lives of countless other transgender people. Brandt said in a statement. by the ACLU.
Sabrina Jennen, another transgender youth who sued over the ban, said she felt a “wave of relief” at the ruling.
“I can say with 100% certainty that if I hadn’t had that care, I wouldn’t be here today or at least in as stable a state of mind as I am and as happy as I am and as thriving as I am,” Jennen, 17. , he told The Associated Press. “Having that cure really lifted me from the deepest, darkest place.”
