A federal judge issued an order Friday stopping an Indiana ban on puberty blockers and hormones for transgender minors from taking effect as scheduled July 1.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana sought the temporary injunction in its legal challenge of the Republican-backed law, which was enacted this spring amid a national push by GOP-led legislatures to curb LGBTQ+ rights.
The order from U.S. District Court Judge James Patrick Hanlon will allow the law’s prohibition on gender surgeries to take effect. Hanlon’s order also blocks provisions that would prohibit Indiana doctors from communicating with out-of-state doctors about transgender procedures for their patients younger than 18.
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The ACLU had provided “evidence of risks to minors’ health and wellbeing from gender dysphoria if those treatments can no longer be provided to minors — prolonging of their dysphoria, and causing additional distress and health risks, such as depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and suicidality,” Hanlon said. “While the State has identified legitimate reasons for regulation in this area, the designated evidence does not demonstrate, at least at this stage, that the extent of its regulation was closely tailored to uphold those interests.”
ACLU leaders hailed the ruling as a victory in the fight “to defend the right of all trans people to be their authentic selves, free from discrimination.”
A federal judge has blocked a significant portion of an Indiana law banning gender-altering procedures and therapies for minors. (AP Photo/Darron Cummings, File)
“We won’t rest until this unconstitutional law is struck down for good,” Ken Falk, the ACLU of Indiana’s legal director, said in a statement.
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A top attorney for the state told Hanlon during a court hearing on Wednesday that risks from gender treatments during puberty such as future fertility, bone strength, brain development and possible reversibility had not been adequately studied by scientists.
Such factors make it within the Legislature’s authority to decide “we don’t want our children to be part of this grand experiment,” Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher said.
Representatives from Indiana University Health Riley Children’s Hospital, the state’s sole hospital-based gender health program, told legislators earlier this year that for patients who are minors, doctors do not perform genital surgeries or provide those surgery referrals. IU Health was not involved in the ACLU’s lawsuit.
