Texas Supreme Court upholds ban on mutilating transgender hormones, surgeries for children

Texas Values responded to the ruling by saying, “This is an important victory for Texas Children, protecting them against puberty blocking drugs, cross-sex hormonal treatments, and the amputation of healthy body parts. All of these are irreversible.”

The Texas Supreme Court has upheld the 2023 law that makes it illegal for minors to be subjected to “gender-transition” surgeries, hormone transgender interventions, or puberty blocking medications.

The court ruled 8-1 that “the Legislature’s rationale for concluding the risks of [transgender intervention] for children who are only being treated to physically transition from their birth sex was not outweighed” by the benefits.

Justice Rebeca A. Huddle wrote, “We have never held a parent’s right to care for their child without government interference is so important that it should trigger heightened scrutiny on every statute.” The legislature made a “reasonable and permissible policy choice” to limit the medical procedures available for children, especially in light of the novelty of gender-dysphoria.

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Texas Values (TV), in a press release following the decision, said: “This is an important victory for Texas Children, protecting them against puberty blocking hormones, cross-sex hormonal and the severing of healthy body parts. All of these are irreversible.”

Jonathan Covey, TV’s Director of Policy, said: “No child should be given false hope by the nonscientific notion that they aren’t really the sex to which they were born.” Today, the Texas Supreme Court agreed! This decision confirms what we know already, that doctors can’t mutilate a child in the name healthcare.”

The case was brought by several Texas families whose children were undergoing dangerous and irreversible transgender procedures or planned to do so at the time Senate Bill 14 (SB 14), which became law in last year, passed. The case was also brought by health professionals with a stake in the “LGBTQ+’ ideology.

This ruling is particularly significant because the Lone Star State has strong protections for the inviolability and rights of parents over children. The court was careful to reiterate at the beginning of its ruling that “fit parents have a basic interest in directing care, custody and control of children without government interference.”

The court stated that “a half century ago we recognized this ‘natural’ right between parents and their children as ‘one with constitutional dimensions'”. It also said that the government’s authority to limit these rights was “deeply embedded in” Texas law. For example, the state’s ban on child labor.

Aabshar Ghassi of Jurist News reported that the Texas Supreme Court determined that SB 14 did not violate the right of parents to decide on medical care for their children, because this right is in conflict with the need to protect children from harm. “Furthermore the Texas Legislature is constitutionally empowered to regulate medical practices, and parents are only allowed to choose legal medical procedures.”

Justice Jimmy Blacklock viewed the issue as one of moral conflict between a “traditional vision” versus a “transgender view” in relation to the “transition” “industry” that is nascent.

Blacklock wrote: “The divergence between the two visions is insurmountable.” “Those who adhere to the traditional view are largely convinced that the transgender perspective is, at the end of the day, a fantasy.”

The U.S. Supreme Court decided late last month to add a similar case from Tennessee to its docket next year. This case challenged a Tennessee law that protects minors against receiving “gender affirming” interventions.

In the United States, there are laws that prohibit surgical mutilation on minors in the name “gender transitioning.” 24 states also limit hormone treatments. Alabama, Florida Idaho North Dakota Oklahoma and South Carolina all have laws that make it a crime to perform transgender hormonal or surgical procedures on children.

Evidence shows that transgender intervention can cause serious and even life-threatening injuries such as heart disease, cancers, strokes, infertility or bone density loss. It may also lead to emotional problems and permanent damage of reproductive organs.

Detransitioners, who are often ignored, have testified to the harm caused by gender confusion. They also cite the bias and negligence on the part of medical professionals, some of whom adopt an activist approach and start cases with predetermined conclusions in support of “transition”.

Last week, Dr. Peter McCullough, on The Ingraham Aspect, told Jeanine Pirro that “gender-transitioning” is “disfiguring, sterilizing, increases the burden psychiatric diseases, and increases all-cause mortality.”