Global Courant
A federal judge on Friday issued an injunction preventing Indiana’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone treatments for minors from taking effect July 1 as scheduled. U.S. District Court Judge James Patrick Hanlon granted the law banning gender operations on minors. Hanlon, a Trump appointee, justified the ruling by noting that constitutional challenges to such legal provisions may have “some chance of success”
A federal judge on Friday issued an injunction preventing a ban on puberty blockers and hormones for transgender minors in Indiana from taking effect July 1.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana sought the temporary injunction in its legal challenge to the Republican-backed law, which passed this spring amid national push from GOP-led lawmakers to curb LGBTQ+ rights.
U.S. District Court Judge James Patrick Hanlon’s order will see the legal ban on gender reassignment surgery take effect. Hanlon’s order also blocks provisions that would prohibit Indiana doctors from communicating with foreign doctors about transgender procedures for their patients under 18.
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The ACLU filed the lawsuit within hours of Republican Governor Eric Holcomb signing the bill into law on April 5. The challenge, on behalf of four youths undergoing transgender treatment and an Indiana doctor who provides such care, argued that the ban would violate the equal protection guarantees of the U.S. Constitution. and the right of parents to decide on their children’s medical treatment flouted.
The Republican-dominated Indiana legislature passed the ban after controversial hearings featuring mostly vocal opponent testimony, with many claiming that the gender procedures reduced the risk of depression and suicide among youth diagnosed with “gender dysphoria,” or anxiety caused when gender identity doesn’t. do not match a person’s assigned gender.
Hanlon, who was appointed by former President Donald Trump, wrote that he blocked the bill from enacting because opponents had demonstrated potential irreparable harm to those undergoing treatment and had shown “some chance of success” with arguments that it was unconstitutional.
The ACLU had provided “evidence of risks to the health and well-being of minors from gender dysphoria if those treatments can no longer be given to minors – prolonging their dysphoria and causing additional distress and health risks such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicidality,” Hanlon said. “While the state has identified legitimate grounds for regulation in this area, the appropriate evidence, at least at this stage, does not demonstrate that the scope of its regulation was closely aligned to defending those interests.”
ACLU leaders hailed the ruling as a victory in the fight “to defend the right of all transgender people to be themselves, free from discrimination.”
A federal judge has blocked a significant portion of an Indiana law banning sex reassignment procedures and therapies for minors. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, file)
“We will not rest until this unconstitutional law is struck down for good,” Ken Falk, the legal director of Indiana’s ACLU, said in a statement.
At least 20 GOP-led states have now enacted laws restricting or banning such medical treatments for transgender minors after Missouri’s governor signed that state’s bill into law last week. Lawsuits have been filed in several states against treatment bans for transgender people. Federal judges have also blocked enforcement of laws in Alabama and Arkansas, and Oklahoma has agreed not to enforce the ban while opponents seek a temporary injunction to block it.
The Republican Rep. Joanna King of Middlebury, sponsor of the Indiana bill, said during the discussion of the ban that it would “protect our children from irreversible, harmful, life-altering procedures.”
The Indiana Attorney General’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Hanlon’s ruling and whether it would seek to appeal the order before July 1. Provisions of the law that were blocked allowed trans youth on drugs to transition until December 31. Stop.
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A top state attorney told Hanlon at a hearing on Wednesday that the risks of gender treatments during puberty, such as future fertility, bone strength, brain development and potential reversibility, had not been adequately studied by scientists.
Such factors put it within the legislature’s discretion to decide “we don’t want our children to be a part of this grand experiment,” said Indiana Attorney General Thomas Fisher.
While guidelines from leading authorities on transgender procedures already say surgeries should generally be reserved for adults, with the exception of older teens who meet certain criteria, Indiana law calls for an immediate ban on surgeries.
The provisions of the law prohibiting underage gender reassignment surgery in Indiana will have no immediate effect. Hanlon wrote in his ruling that no medical provider in the state performs these procedures on people under the age of 18.
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Representatives from Indiana University Health Riley Children’s Hospital, the state’s only gender health hospital program, told lawmakers earlier this year that doctors do not perform or refer genital surgeries on minor patients. IU Health was not involved in the ACLU’s lawsuit.
