Red states are passing bans on gender-transition treatment for minor children faster than the American Civil Liberties Union can sue them.
North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum signed legislation making it a crime to provide puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex-change surgeries to those under 18, becoming the 16th state to prohibit “gender-affirming care” for youth.
The law takes effect immediately, but it includes an exception for minors already taking gender-transition drugs. Gender-reassignment surgeries are not being performed on children in North Dakota, according to the governor’s office.
“House Bill 1254 is aimed at protecting children from the life-altering ramifications of gender reassignment surgeries,” Mr. Burgum, a Republican, said in a statement Thursday announcing his signature.
“It is important to note that physicians and other health care providers testified these types of surgeries have not been and are not being performed on minors in North Dakota,” he said.
The bill also contains exceptions for children experiencing early-onset puberty and those with genetic chromosomal disorders.
“Courts have not overturned similar surgical prohibitions for minors across the country, and HB 1254 still allows medication treatment for early onset puberty and other rare circumstances with parental consent,” the governor said. “Children currently receiving gender affirming care will still be able to receive treatment under this legislation.”
The ACLU of North Dakota blasted the law, calling it a “vast government overreach,” and hinted at future legal action on the grounds that “singling out gender-affirming care for categorical prohibition violates the constitutional guarantees of equal protection and due process.”
Gov. Burgum has signed House Bill 1254, which criminalizes gender-affirming health care for minors, including sex reassignment surgeries: pic.twitter.com/oBoTOI03Zu
— Jack Dura (@JackFromNoDak) April 20, 2023
The ACLU has already sued or announced plans to sue to block the laws in a half-dozen states — Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Montana, Oklahoma and Tennessee — contending that the measures violate the U.S. Constitution by discriminating on the basis of sex and transgender status.
The organization’s latest lawsuit was filed Thursday challenging a Tennessee measure signed into law last month by Republican Gov. Bill Lee.
The “Health Care Ban” will have “devastating consequences for transgender youth,” according to the lawsuit filed on behalf of three Tennessee families with children taking gender-transition drugs as well as one doctor.
They include the Williams family, whose 15-year-old child identified as L.W. is “a girl with a female identity, but when she was born, she was designated as male,” the lawsuit said.
“In 2019, an extended family member came out as transgender, and L.W. began to realize she was feeling the same way as her family member described feeling,” the complaint said. “L.W. started doing her own research about what it meant to be transgender and began her social transition by telling a close friend in her neighborhood that she was a girl.”
L.W. began taking puberty blockers in 2021 and estrogen in 2022 as prescribed by doctors at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, but the newly signed law will require that minors to be weaned off the drugs beginning July 1.
“Her parents have jobs that they love in Tennessee. However, L.W. and her family are concerned about L.W.’s health and well-being if she can no longer receive the medical care she needs in Tennessee,” the lawsuit said. “They have discussed needing to leave Tennessee so that L.W. can get the medical care she needs.”
The lawsuit argues that the law violates the due process clause of the U.S. Constitution as well as the Affordable Care Act’s ban on sex discrimination.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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