In an 8-1 decision, the Texas Supreme Court upheld the state’s new law protecting children from harmful puberty blockers, hormones, and medically mutilating surgeries. The Court determined the law did not violate the state’s constitution and allowed Texas to remain one of 25 states that restrict parents from accessing and doctors from prescribing experimental and often irreversible gender procedures for children.

Texas Supreme Court Justice Rebeca Huddle, who authored the majority opinion, empathized that children with gender confusion deserve “support” and “appropriate treatment,” but noted the types of treatments for this condition are “hotly debated” throughout the world. The law’s challengers are several parents seeking these procedures for their minor children as well as several doctors seeking them for their minor patients. Justice Huddle stated the Court only evaluated the case from a “distinctly legal” perspective on whether “fit parents” have a right under the law to access these “novel” medical procedures for their children and whether doctors have the right to administer them. 

Justice Huddle explained that “fit parents” have a right to raise their children without government interference but noted the right “is not absolute” to demand illegal procedures.

“[A] fit parent’s fundamental interest in caring for her child free from government interference extends to choosing from among legally available medical treatments, but it never has been understood to permit a parent to demand medical treatment that is not legally available,” wrote Justice Huddle.

The Court determined that the state constitution does not “render the legislature powerless” to determine a line between “parental autonomy” on one side and regulating the practice of medicine on the other with the interest of protecting children from harm in the balance. 

“In short, our precedents acknowledge that parental rights, though weighty, at times give way to other competing interests such as the interest in protecting children from harm,” wrote Justice Huddle. “The Legislature prohibits children from being tattooed, even with their parents’ consent, both because children may not fully appreciate the consequences of their actions and because of the risk that parents may be imposing their own desires, however well-meaning, on the child.” Justice Huddle noted the term “gender dysphoria” is a “newly defined medical condition” and Texas’ new ban does not take away any parental rights, it just “merely restricts” these new procedures. 

“We hold only that novel treatments for a novel condition are generally within the Legislature’s power to regulate,” Justice Huddle stated. “…the Legislature had a rational basis for concluding that the risk of providing these treatments to children…was not outweighed by the benefits.” 

The Court concluded Texas’ law banning medical mutilation “does not unconstitutionally deprive parents of their rights,” nor does it “confer on physicians a right to practice medicine in any way they see fit.” 

At least 25 states have passed similar legislation protecting children. The other states are Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming.  

In September 2023, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to uphold similar laws protecting minors in Kentucky and Tennessee. And last August, the U.S. Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Alabama can fully enforce its 2022 “Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act,” which also makes it a felony to provide any of these procedures to a minor.  

In Arkansas, a federal judge declared in June 2023 that its “Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act” was unconstitutional. However, Arkansas has appealed the ruling, and all 11 judges of the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in April 2024. The Eighth Circuit did not give a timeline on when they would deliver a decision. 

Liberty Counsel’s Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “We must protect children from these harmful procedures. Gender ideology has devastated many lives. Children are not social experiments and state legislatures have considerable discretion to protect them.” 

For more information about state laws protecting children from gender ideology, visit Liberty Counsel’s website here.