Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 15, 2024 / 18:45 pm (CNA).
The United States Supreme Court awarded Idaho emergency relief that will allow the state to enforce its ban on doctors performing sex-change operations on children and providing them with sex-change drugs.
In a 6-3 decision on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled that the lower appellate court had gone too far when it blocked Idaho from enforcing the law altogether. The decision, however, does not settle the question of whether the law is constitutional.
The lower court had blocked the state from enforcing any part of the law in response to a lawsuit that challenged the constitutionality of the rules. The lawsuit is still ongoing, but the order had been preventing the law from going into effect while both sides litigated the constitutionality of the law in court.
Per the Supreme Court’s decision, Idaho can broadly enforce the law and is only blocked from enforcing it against the plaintiffs who are named in the lawsuit until the litigation is settled.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador, a Republican, praised the Supreme Court’s decision in a statement Monday.
“I’ve witnessed firsthand the devastating consequences of drugs and procedures used on children with gender dysphoria,” Labrador said. “And it’s a preventable tragedy.”
“The state has a duty to protect and support all children, and that’s why I’m proud to defend Idaho’s law that ensures children are not subjected to these life-altering drugs and procedures,” the attorney general continued. “Those suffering from gender dysphoria deserve love, support, and medical care rooted in biological reality. Denying the basic truth that boys and girls are biologically different hurts our kids. No one has the right to harm children, and I’m grateful that we, as the state, have the power — and duty — to protect them.”
The American Civil Liberties Union issued a statement that noted the constitutionality of the law has not yet been settled but called the ruling “an awful result for transgender youth and their families across the state.”
“Today’s ruling allows the state to shut down the care that thousands of families rely on while sowing further confusion and disruption,” the statement read. “Nonetheless, today’s result only leaves us all the more determined to defeat this law in the courts entirely, making Idaho a safer state to raise every family.”
Nearly half of the states in the country have enacted restrictions on doctor’s performing sex-change operations on children or providing children with drugs to facilitate a gender transition.
If you value the news and views Catholic World Report provides, please consider donating to support our efforts. Your contribution will help us continue to make CWR available to all readers worldwide for free, without a subscription. Thank you for your generosity!
Click here for more information on donating to CWR. Click here to sign up for our newsletter.
Bravo to the court for deciding the inmates cannot run the asylum. It has been demonstrated that many of these children suffer from mental illnesses which cannot be cured by carving up their bodies. Europe has now taken a long step back from these surgeries. Not even a parent should have the right to physically mutilate their child. Laws need to be passed barring this surgery to anyone under the age of 25 (male brains mature later than female brains, it has been shown). Doctors who engage in such mutilating surgeries or drug prescription for children should be barred from practicing medicine and jailed.People who still want the surgery after age 25 can make their own decision, but this should NEVER be foisted on children. I hope many states follow the example of Idaho.