Court of Appeals allows Indiana’s ban on transitional care for minors to take effect
Indiana’s ban on hormone treatments and puberty blockers for transgender minors can go into effect, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday, reversing a lower court ruling last year that had largely blocked the law.
The statement of three paragraphs A panel of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, based in Chicago, said it was suspending a preliminary injunction the district court issued in June, just before the law was set to take effect last summer.
The appeal judges did not explain their reasoning, but simply said that a full opinion on the case would be issued in the future.
The decision further confuses the national legal landscape surrounding transgender care for minors, with bans in some states but not in others, and could lead to abrupt changes in the treatment of young people in Indiana.
“This ruling is beyond disappointing and a heartbreaking development for thousands of transgender youth, their doctors and their families,” the American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Indiana, which filed the lawsuit challenging the ban, said in a statement. “As we and our clients consider our next steps, we want all transgender youth in Indiana to know that this fight is far from over,” the statement said.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, whose office defended the law in court, said on social media that “we are proud to win this fight.”
“Our common-sense state law banning dangerous and irreversible gender transition procedures for minors is now enforceable,” said Republican Rep. Rokita.
Republican-led states have fought in recent years to ban gender transition care for minors, leading to a series of lawsuits in federal and state courts that have so far produced mixed results. Many legal experts on both sides of the issue expect the legality of the bans will ultimately be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
Indiana’s ban passed the Republican-controlled Legislature by wide margins last spring and was signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb, a Republican. Supporters of the law claimed they wanted to protect young people from making life-changing decisions they might later regret.
Families of transgender children have filed a lawsuit to block the law, saying it would put transgender youth at immediate risk of unwanted changes to their bodies that would have lifelong consequences.
A federal district judge, James Patrick Hanlon, appointed by President Donald J. Trump, temporarily blocked parts of the law banning hormone treatments and puberty blockers for minors while the lawsuit continued. He allowed a ban on gender transition operations for minors to take effect as planned.
But after hearing arguments this month, a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit, consisting of two judges appointed by Republican presidents and one appointed by a Democratic president, vacated Judge Hanlon’s order.