SCOTUS Could Outlaw ‘Gender-Affirming Care’ for Minors Next Year
The Supreme Court is set to determine the constitutionality of a Tennessee law that bans gender-bending medical treatments for minors.
On Monday, the court acquiesced to the Biden administration’s request to take up United States v. Skrmetti, a case that involves two 16-year-olds and a 13 year-old who have received puberty blockers and other hormone therapy cocktails. The minors, their parents, and a doctor that treats patients with gender dysphoria filed a lawsuit against Tennessee officials in federal court to challenge the validity of the law.
The Tennessee law, passed in 2023, bans so-called gender-affirming care for minors while providing exemptions for hormone treatments for minors who were undergoing hormone therapy for other medical reasons or had already started hormone treatments before March 31, 2024. Violators could potentially lose their medical licenses.
The administration believes the Tennessee restrictions on certain transgender treatments for minors are unconstitutional. In her petition to the highest court, Solicitor General Elizabeth B. Prelogar claimed that while the law bans the treatments for gender questioning minors, it “leaves the same treatments entirely unrestricted if they are prescribed for any other purpose.”
Tennessee is one of more than 20 red states to enact protections for minors against hormone therapy and other gender-bending treatments. Laws in Idaho, which the Supreme Court previously allowed to go into effect, and Kentucky could be impacted by the ruling, which will likely come down in the summer of 2025.
In the meantime, the court will prepare to hear arguments sometime in the fall.
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