COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) – A Missouri court on Monday upheld a new state law banning certain gender-affirming health care for minors, a victory for supporters of the ban as a host of lawsuits challenging similar bans are still underway in other states.
Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey said in a statement that Missouri is the “first state in the nation to successfully defend such a law at the district court level.” Bailey, who tried to ban minors’ access to gender-affirming health care through rule changes but abandoned that effort when the law passed, is responsible for defending the legislation in court.
“I am extremely proud of the thousands of hours my office has put in to shed light on the lack of evidence supporting these irreversible proceedings,” Bailey said. “We will never stop fighting to ensure Missouri is the safest state in the country. children.”
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Every major medical organization, including the American Medical Association, has opposed the ban on gender-affirming care for minors and has supported medical care for young people if it is properly administered.
Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Missouri, which represent the plaintiffs who sued to overturn the law, said Monday they will appeal the ruling.
Missouri is among at least 26 states that have passed laws limiting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors.
Federal judges have struck down the bans in Arkansas and Florida as unconstitutional, although a federal appeals court stayed the Florida ruling. A judge’s orders have been issued temporarily blocking enforcement of the ban in Montana. New Hampshire’s restrictions are scheduled to take effect in January 2025.
Missouri law banned gender confirmation surgeries for children and teens under 18 as of August 2023, as well as hormones and puberty blockers for minors who had not yet started those treatments. The law expires in August 2027.
These treatments are accepted by major medical groups as evidence-based care that transgender people should have access to.
Most adults still have access to gender-affirming health care under Missouri law, but Medicaid does not cover it.
The plaintiffs, who include family members of several teens who are transgender, argued that the law takes away medically necessary treatments from transgender minors while still allowing other children access to similar surgeries and medications.
Wright County Circuit Court Judge Craig Carter disagreed. In his ruling, the southern Missouri judge wrote that he believes there is “an almost total lack of consensus regarding the medical ethics of treating gender dysphoria in adolescents.”
“The evidence at trial showed that there was serious disagreement over whether drug and surgical treatment for gender dysphoria in adolescents was ethical at all, and if so, what amount of treatment was ethically permissible,” Carter wrote.
Lambda Legal and the ACLU of Missouri said in a statement that the ruling indicates that “compassion and equal access to health care are still out of reach for some.”
“The court’s findings indicate a disturbing acceptance of discrimination, ignore an extensive trial record and the voices of transgender Missourians and those who care for them, and deny transgender adolescents and Medicaid beneficiaries their right to access evidence-based, effective and often life-saving medical care,” the organizations said.
The states that have passed laws restricting or banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender minors include: Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska , New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
