Kentucky Judge Stays Ban on Gender-Affirming Medical Care

Hours before a ban on gender-affirming care was set to take effect in Kentucky, a federal judge stepped in and placed a temporary injunction on the bill. 

On Wednesday, Judge David J. Hale sided with seven trangender minors, and their families, who sued the state in response to SB 150, arguing that the bill’s ban on access to medical care violated the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause and the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The bill originally passed in March, over the veto of Kentucky’s Democratic Governor Andy Beshear. 

The stay on the bill is partial, a ban on gender-affirming surgical procedures for individuals under the age of 18 will be allowed to proceed, but provisions against minors being able to access puberty blockers, and hormone therapy via prescription have been temporarily blocked. Other portions of the bill, which have not been placed under injunction, include a ban against school districts compelling staff or students from using an individual’s preferred pronouns. 

“The Court finds that Plaintiffs have shown a strong likelihood of success on the merits of their constitutional challenges to SB 150 and otherwise meet the requirements for preliminary injunctive relief,” Hale wrote in his decision. 

The judge added that “the Court finds that the treatments barred by SB 150 are medically appropriate and necessary for some transgender children under the evidence-based standard of care accepted by all major medical organizations in the United States.” 

Hale added that Kentucky, in its response to the lawsuit, “fails to show that the ban imposed by SB 150” helps meet its stated goals of  “‘protecting vulnerable groups… from abuse, neglect, and mistakes’; and ‘protecting the integrity and ethics of the medical profession.’”

“We are grateful to the Court for enjoining this egregious ban on medically necessary care, which would have caused harm for countless young Kentuckians,” wrote the ACLU of Kentucky, which participated in the lawsuit. “This is a win, but it is only the first step. We’re prepared to fight for families’ right to make their own private medical decisions in court, and to continue doing everything in our power to ensure access to medical care is permanently secured in Kentucky.”

Amongst a slew of laws throughout the country seeking to restrict the rights and freedoms of transgender individuals, several major legal challenges have been mounted. In April, the Department of Justice mounted a challenge to a Tennessee law that would have placed a similar ban on gender-affirming medical care in the state.