Judge strikes down Arkansas ban on gender-affirming care for minors

A federal judge in Arkansas on Tuesday struck down the state's law prohibiting transition-related medical treatments for transgender minors.

More than a dozen other states have enacted similar bans, and this was the first successful legal challenge resulting in a law being overturned. In his ruling, U.S. District Judge James Moody Jr. wrote that the law violates the First Amendment and the equal protection and due process clauses of the 14th Amendment. He also said the state of Arkansas did not sufficiently prove its claims that gender-affirming care is experimental and has harmful side effects and that doctors are providing treatment without informed consent or thorough evaluations.

"Rather than protecting children or safeguarding medical ethics, the evidence showed that the prohibited medical care improves the mental health and well-being of patients and that, by prohibiting it, the state undermined the interests it claims to be advancing," Moody wrote.

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The Arkansas law banned doctors from giving puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and other gender-affirming treatments to minors and blocked them from referring patients to other physicians. It was enacted in April 2021, after the Republican-held Legislature overrode a veto from then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson (R). A month later, the ACLU sued the state on behalf of four transgender minors and their parents and two doctors.