Trans youth health care ban to begin after Texas Supreme Court denies motion

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- A new Texas law banning transgender health care for minors will go into effect Friday, Sept. 1 after the Texas Supreme Court denied a motion for temporary relief on Thursday.

A Travis County district judge issued a temporary injunction last Friday, August 25, blocking Texas’ ban on transgender health care for minors from going into effect in the new month.

The judge’s order would have paused SB 14 from going into effect on Friday. However, a little over an hour after the judge issued the injunction, the Office of the Attorney General filed an appeal with the Texas Supreme Court.

In a seven-page order, Judge Maria Cantú Hexsel found the bill likely violates parents’ and doctors’ rights under the Texas Constitution, writing that it infringes upon “the fundamental right of parents to make decisions concerning the care, custody and control of their children.”

“The evidence before the Court does not support the conclusion the Act protects the health or wellbeing of minors. Instead, the evidence demonstrates that the Act threatens the health and wellbeing of adolescents with gender dysphoria,” Cantú Hexsel wrote.

Attorneys for Texas and authors of the legislation claim the state has the right to regulate parental decisions when it poses a threat to minors — arguing children are too young to make possibly life-altering decisions, and therefore, restrictions on gender-transition care were necessary to protect minors.

In a press release, the Office of the Attorney General wrote that its appeal will protect children from gender transition interventions.

The ACLU in a statement called the Supreme Court's ruling cruel and said it puts transgender youth "in harm's way."

“Today’s cruel ruling places Texas’ transgender youth, and the families and medical professionals who love and care for them, directly in harm’s way. The district court heard two days of testimony, weighed the evidence, and made a reasoned and thoughtful determination that the ban likely violated the Texas Constitution and thus should be delayed while the full case plays out in court. Inexplicably, the Texas Supreme Court disagreed, and transgender youth and their families are forced to confront the start of the school year fearful of what awaits them."