A federal judge has struck down a 2021 Arkansas law banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth, forbidding the enforcement of the nation’s first law blocking medical treatment for minors who identify with a gender different from the one assigned at birth.
U.S. District Judge Jay Moody issued a preliminary injunction on Monday, ruling that the law, known as Act 626, violated the constitutional rights of transgender youth and their families, as well as the free speech rights of doctors who provide such care.
The law, which was set to take effect on July 28, would have prohibited doctors from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy, or surgery to anyone under 18 years old, or referring them to other providers for such treatment. It also would have allowed private insurers to refuse to cover gender-affirming care for people of any age.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed a lawsuit in May on behalf of four transgender youth and their families, as well as two doctors who treat transgender patients. The plaintiffs argued that the law would cause irreparable harm to transgender youth in Arkansas, who would lose access to life-saving care and face increased risks of depression, suicide, and self-harm.
“This ruling sends a clear message to states across the country that gender-affirming care is life-saving care, and we won’t let politicians in Arkansas — or anywhere else — take it away,” said Holly Dickson, executive director of the ACLU of Arkansas, in a statement.
Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said she was disappointed by the judge’s decision and vowed to appeal it.
“I will aggressively defend Arkansas’s law which strongly limits permanent, life-altering sex changes to adolescents,” she said in a statement. “I will not sit idly by while radical groups such as the ACLU use our children as pawns for their own social agenda.”
Arkansas is one of several states that have passed or considered legislation this year targeting transgender youth, including bans on their participation in school sports and access to health care. According to the ACLU, more than 35 states have introduced more than 100 bills that would limit the rights of transgender people.
