Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb, joins former Ind. Gov.’s Mike Pence, Mitch Daniels, and Evan Bayh for a panel discussion on leadership during the Indiana State Fair’s Harvest Dinner on Wednesday, August. 14, 2024, in Indianapolis.
A three-judge panel on the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit is allowing Indiana’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors to be implemented.
The law in question was signed in April 2023 by Gov. Eric Holcomb (R), and it bans doctors from prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy to trans minors. Holcomb said that the bill was so vague that it was “clear as mud” but still signed it into law. It passed the state legislature by a large margin in both chambers, which meant that lawmakers could have overridden his veto if he didn’t sign it.
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The ACLU of Indiana sued on behalf of four families to stop the law from being implemented, and a district court judge issued a preliminary injunction to stop it from going into effect while the case worked its way through the legal system.
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The state appealed the injunction to the Seventh Circuit court, which lifted it in February and now issued its final ruling against it. In that ruling, the judges said that the district court was wrong that the bill would cause “irreparable harm” to trans youth who would be forced to detransition, saying that “psychotherapy and parasocial support” can be used to treat gender dysphoria in the absence of gender-affirming care.
“It might be different if Indiana barred all treatment for gender dysphoria, but SEA 480 does no such thing,” wrote Judge Michael Brennan, who was appointed by Donald Trump.
All major medical organizations in the U.S. support gender-affirming care as safe and effective.
The majority of the panel also said that the state law doesn’t violate trans youth’s due process or equal protection rights since both trans boys and trans girls are barred from accessing gender-affirming care.
“So, sex does not indicate on what basis treatment is prohibited,” Brennan wrote. “The law does not create a class of one sex and a class of another and deny treatment to just one of those classes.”
The argument depends on not seeing transgender people as a class of people. Cisgender youth are still able to access gender-affirming care under the law, which explicitly states that it only bans certain treatments when used to make someone “resemble a sex different from the individual’s sex” assigned at birth.
Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi, appointed by President Joe Biden, dissented from Brennan’s decision, while Ronald Reagan-appointee Judge Kenneth Ripple joined Brennan in the 2-1 decision.
“We are disappointed and are considering our options,” said Kenneth Faulk of the ACLU of Indiana.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) hailed the decision and cited God in a statement on it.
“The Seventh District Court of Appeal’s decision today is a huge win for Hoosiers and will help protect our most precious gift from God — our children,” he said.
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