Supreme Court will hear gender-affirming care case this fall
WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – The Supreme Court announced it is taking up yet another consequential case. Next year the court could decide if states can legally ban transgender minors from accessing hormone blockers.
This court decision will have a huge impact on countless families living in states with similar gender care restrictions and set the tone for future debates surrounding transgender rights in America.
"The decisions about the health of our kids, the decision about the welfare of our kids that should be up to parents or a doctor,” said Kelley Robinson, Human Rights Campaign president.
The country's leading LGBTQ organization is rallying behind efforts to protect access to gender affirming care.
The court says it will now take up a Biden administration challenge to a Tennessee law which bans treatments like hormone blockers for transgender minors.
"Care that every major medical organization supports,” said Robinson.
Right now, 25 states restrict or ban gender affirming care for teens.
Robinson calls the bans discrimination.
"We need to see this for what it is, this is a politically motivated attack meant to divide us,” said Robinson.
Conservative groups argue the bans are lawful.
The Heritage Foundation says the court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade increases their confidence that justices will agree this is also a state matter.
"Listen the states have spoken, these laws pass constitutional muster,” said Sarah Parshall Perry of the Heritage Foundation.
Sarah Parshall Perry, a senior legal fellow at the Heritage Foundation, argues the bans are no different than laws barring minors from drinking alcohol.
"And the Supreme Court for decades have recognized that minors lack the capacity and the judgment and the maturity to make lifelong decisions,” said Parshall Perry.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this fall.