The Texas Supreme Court has allowed a law banning transgender treatments on minors to go into effect, placing the state as a leader in this legislation that protects little ones.
(LifeSiteNews/InfoCatholic) The Texas Supreme Court allowed the state’s ban on transgender hormones and surgeries for minors to go into effect, making Texas the largest U.S. state to outlaw these dangerous interventions.
The court on Thursday rejected an emergency motion filed by LGBT activist groups to prevent the law from taking effect on Sept. 1, as scheduled.
Democratic Texas District Judge Maria Cantu Hexsel temporarily blocked the law last week, but the attorney general’s office immediately appealed to the Supreme Court, automatically staying her injunction. The appeal is pending before the Supreme Court.
“Texas children are safer today because of the Supreme Court’s ruling,” said Jonathan Covey, policy director for the conservative advocacy group Texas Values. “Protecting children from harmful and dangerous gender transition surgeries and puberty blockers is in the best interest of the child and something we can all agree on.”
Texas’ ban on childhood “gender transitions,” which Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed in June, prohibits prescribing, administering or dispensing to children under 18 “prescription drugs that induce transient or permanent infertility,” including puberty-blocking drugs and cross-sex hormones. It also prohibits sterilizing surgeries and mastectomies on minors and the use of public funds to pay for “transitions” for minors.
The law requires children who began taking puberty blockers or hormones before June 1 to stop taking the drugs “for a period of time and in a manner that is safe and medically appropriate and that minimizes the risk of complications.”
The Texas Medical Board must revoke the license of any physician who violates the law.
Abbott previously issued an executive order directing Texas agencies to consider “gender transition” procedures as child abuse.
Research shows that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones lead to serious, even life-threatening side effects, such as cardiovascular disease, infertility, bone density loss and emotional problems. A 2019 study found that people who use hormones as part of a “gender transition” have dramatically higher risks of breast cancer.
Transgender surgeries include irreversible procedures to remove sex organs and construct synthetic genitalia and other features intended to mimic those of the opposite sex.
Despite the enormous risks and lack of scientific basis, tens of thousands of minors in the United States have taken puberty blockers or sex-change hormones in recent years to make a “gender transition.” At least 3,678 underwent some form of transgender surgery between 2016 and 2020, according to a study released last month.
Nearly 30,000 Texas teens between the ages of 13 and 17 identify as “transgender,” according to estimates from UCLA’s Williams Institute.
In addition to Texas, 21 other states have passed laws restricting “gender transitions” for children, and most of those laws are in effect.
State and federal courts have recently upheld bans on transgender surgeries and medications for minors in several states, including Alabama, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee.
Other Texas laws set to take effect Friday include a ban on males competing in women’s college sports and a law banning diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices and programs at institutions of higher education.