A federal judge Invalid Arkansas law on Tuesday bans gender reassignment therapy for minors. The ruling is the first-of-its-kind in a country where a total of 19 Republican-held states are trying to block minors from accessing hormone or surgical sex-change therapy.
In an 80-page ruling, Judge James Moot found that the Arkansas law discriminated against transgender people and violated doctors’ constitutional rights. He also argued that the conservative government failed to substantiate many of its claims that care was tested or carelessly prescribed to teenagers.
“Rather than protecting children or protecting medical ethics, the evidence shows that restricted medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients, and that by preventing it, the state undermines the interests it claims to protect,” wrote Justice James Moody. Nominated by Barack Obama and most likely confirmed by the Senate. “Furthermore, the various assertions underlying the state’s arguments that the law protects children and protects medical ethics do not explain why gender-affirming medical care, and all gender-affirming medical care sex–are subject to the prohibition.”
In Florida and Alabama, federal judges recently blocked enforcement of laws barring gender reassignment treatment for minors. In his ruling, a Florida federal judge took a hard look at local elected officials and concluded that the plaintiffs — the families — had “every chance” in their argument that the law was unconstitutional and that “terms are an exercise in politics.” Not good medicine.”
But a federal judge in Arkansas, who has already blocked the controversial law in 2021, is the first to declare such a measure unconstitutional. Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders, a Republican, has confirmed the state will appeal the decision. “This is not about ‘care,’ this is about activists pushing a political agenda at the expense of our children,” she said in a statement.
This debate will surely end up in the US Supreme Court one day.
(AP Photo)
