The Texas Supreme Court allowed a law to take effect Friday that prohibits minors from getting sex-change medical procedures while a lawsuit goes through the court system, according to the Associated Press.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the state in July, arguing that the law “would ban necessary and life-saving medical care for Texas’s transgender youth” and were promptly granted an injunction. The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the legislation remain in place while the lawsuit ran its course, according to the AP. (RELATED: California Ag Sues School District To Stop Policy That Informs Parents Of Student Gender Transitions)
“Transgender youth and their families are forced to confront the start of the school year fearful of what awaits them. But let us be clear: The fight is far from over,” the ACLU and legal advocates for the plaintiffs said in a joint statement, according to the AP.
BREAKING: The Texas Supreme Court just ruled that the state’s discriminatory and unconstitutional ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth can go into effect immediately.
— ACLU (@ACLU) August 31, 2023
Senate Bill 14 was signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in June and bars doctors from providing orchiectomy, phalloplasty and vaginoplasty procedures to minors, as well as hormones and puberty blockers, with a limited exception for intersex children, according to the legislation. The bill additionally gives the state attorney general’s office the ability to “restrain or enjoin the person from committing, continuing to commit, or repeating the violation” if they believe a physician is violating the law.
“We are now passing a law to ensure that going forward, no child will be victimized by gender mutilation,” Abbott said during the signing of the bill, according to the Houston Chronicle. “We should not allow sex organs of children to be cut off. That’s something that cannot be tolerated in this state.”
Brian Klosterboer, staff attorney for ACLU of Texas, disagreed with Abbott’s conclusion in a press release for the lawsuit, saying that transgender citizens have the same “right to get the medical care they need.”
“The Texas Constitution forbids our state government from overriding the judgment of patients, their families, and their medical providers,” Klosterboer said. “S.B. 14 is a textbook example of discrimination since it bans evidence-based medical care for transgender youth while allowing any other young person in Texas to get the same treatment.
The Texas Attorney General’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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