Last week the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ruling effectively letting the State of Indiana protect children from sex-change procedures.
Joshua Arnold with The Washington Stand reports,
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit upheld an Indiana law protecting minors from gender transition procedures last Wednesday. The appellate court had stayed a preliminary injunction that blocked all of the law except its prohibition on gender transition surgeries in a simple order on February 27, allowing the law to take effect. Wednesday’s ruling (K.C. v. Medical Licensing Board of Indiana) included a 50-page opinion for why the court reversed the lower court ruling, vacated the preliminary injunction, and remanded the lawsuit back to the district court.
In response to the ruling, Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel and Vice President of Litigation Strategy and Center for Conscience Initiatives Jonathan Scruggs said,
“Indiana rightly enacted a law that protects the health and welfare of all children—supporting their natural biological development and ensuring that children experiencing gender dysphoria have a chance for comprehensive healing and compassionate mental health support. Relying on bad science, activists and the Biden-Harris administration have pushed these harmful procedures across the country and even taken steps to prevent state legislatures from regulating these procedures. These procedures have devastated countless lives, which is why countries that were previously leaders in so-called ‘gender affirming’ care are reversing course and curtailing these experimental efforts to alter children’s bodies. The 7th Circuit was on solid ground to uphold Indiana’s law that allows children to receive the help they need—safely.”
ADF filed a friend-of-the-court brief last year asking the court to let Indiana’s law to go into effect.
This is a significant victory.
Sex-change surgeries and similar procedures can leave children sterilized and scarred for life.
Doctors do not know the long term effects that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones might have on people, but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was prompted to add a warning label to puberty blockers after discovering they caused some biological girls to experience brain swelling.
Three years ago a major hospital in Sweden announced that it would no longer give puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids. This year the United Kingdom announced a new policy protecting children from puberty-blocking drugs.
In 2021 the Arkansas Legislature overwhelmingly passed the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act — a law very similar to Indiana’s. The SAFE Act is a good law that protects children in Arkansas from cross-sex hormones, puberty blockers, and sex-reassignment surgeries.
Unfortunately, the SAFE Act has been blocked in court since 2021.
It’s good to see federal courts let Indiana protect children. We believe our federal courts ultimately will recognize that Arkansas’ SAFE act is a good law and uphold it as constitutional.
Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.
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