Judge blocks Missouri rule limiting transgender health care

A Missouri judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a first-of-its-kind rule restricting access to gender-affirming health care for transgender kids and adults, just hours before it was set to take effect.

St. Louis County Circuit Judge Ellen Ribaudo ruled against Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s emergency rule on transgender health care, putting it on hold until at least Monday. Bailey has touted the rule as a way to shield minors from what he describes as experimental medical treatments.

Transgender Missourians and health care providers sued to stop it from taking effect as scheduled Thursday. They argued that Bailey sidestepped the GOP-led Legislature and acted beyond his authority in attempting to regulate gender-affirming health care under the state’s consumer-protection laws.

The rule would “essentially outlaw, on less than two weeks’ notice, virtually all medically-necessary treatment for gender dysphoria in Missouri, treatment that is supported by every major medical association in the United States,” attorneys for the plaintiffs wrote in court filings.

The rule would have required people to have experienced an “intense pattern” of documented gender dysphoria for three years and to have received at least 15 hourly sessions with a therapist over at least 18 months before receiving puberty blockers, hormones, surgery or other treatment.

Patients also would first have to be screened for autism and “social media addiction,” and any psychiatric symptoms from mental health issues would have to be treated and resolved.

The rule allowed for some individuals to maintain their prescriptions while they promptly received required assessments.