By Brendan Pierson
(Reuters) -An Ohio appeals court on Tuesday blocked the state from enforcing a law banning the use of puberty-blocking drugs and hormones for gender transition in minors, finding it violated parents’ rights to decide their children’s medical treatment.
The unanimous ruling from a three-judge panel of the 10th Appellate District Court of Appeals reverses a lower court judge’s decision last year allowing the law to take effect following a non-jury trial in a lawsuit against the state by families of two transgender girls.
The decision comes as the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether the U.S. Constitution allows states to pass laws like Ohio’s. The Ohio lawsuit is based on the state’s constitution, however, meaning that the outcome of the Supreme Court case will not directly affect it.
“This is a critical victory for transgender youth and their families across Ohio,” Harper Seldin, a lawyer at the American Civil Liberties Union representing the families, said in a statement. “The state’s ban is discriminatory, baseless, and a danger to the well-being of the same Ohioan youth lawmakers claim to want to protect.”
“This is a no-brainer – we are appealing that decision and will seek an immediate stay,” Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who is defending the law, said in a statement. “There is no way I’ll stop fighting to protect these unprotected children.”
Ohio’s Republican-controlled legislature passed the law in January, making the state one of at least 22 to restrict gender-affirming care for minors and overriding the veto of Governor Mike DeWine, a Republican who said he made his decision after hearing from parents of transgender youth that gender-affirming care had been lifesaving for their children.
The law bans treatments including puberty blockers, hormones and surgery. The lawsuit does not challenge the ban on surgery.
The families challenging it argued that it ran afoul of a 2011 amendment to the state constitution, which said that no state law could prohibit Ohioans from purchasing healthcare.
The appeals court panel on Tuesday agreed, saying that the state could not block access to treatments that are considered standard of care by U.S. medical associations or interfere with parents’ “fundamental right” to decide their children’s treatment.
“On review of the record before us, we find a minor’s access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy to treat gender dysphoria – as recommended by an independent medical provider and given with the informed consent of their parents, assent of the minor, and in accordance with the prevailing standards of care – is the type of medical decision parents have a fundamental interest in making on behalf of their children.”
(Reporting by Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
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