This week, the nation’s first trial over a state ban on “gender-affirming” health care for minors began in federal court in Arkansas.
Two doctors testified Monday in Little Rock’s U.S. District Court over the negative impacts of restricting this type of health care for minors, which includes hormone therapy treatments, puberty blockers and sex reassignment surgeries. A 2021 state law banned this type of care for this age demographic.
U.S. District Judge Jay Moody heard evidence and testimony over the law after blocking it last year, the Associated Press reported. The law also prohibits doctors from referring underage patients elsewhere for “gender-affirming” care. Doctors who violate the law could lose their licenses, as well as other professional measures, and could face lawsuits.
The families of transgender children and the doctors argued that the law is unconstitutional (via AP):
The families of four transgender youths and two doctors who provide gender-confirming care want Moody to strike down the law, saying it is unconstitutional because it discriminates against transgender youths, intrudes on parents’ rights to make medical decisions for their children, and infringes on doctors’ free speech rights. The trial is expected to last at least a week.
“As a parent, I never imagined I’d have to fight for my daughter to be able to receive medically necessary health care her doctor says she needs and we know she needs,” said Lacey Jennen, whose 17-year-old daughter has been receiving gender-confirming care.
Republican Attorney General Leslie Rutledge said that the law is about protecting children, adding that “nothing about this law prohibits someone after the age of 18 from making these decisions.”
“What we’re doing in Arkansas is protecting children from life-altering, permanent decisions,” he continued.
This month, Reuters reported how several European countries, including Finland and Sweden, that were “early to embrace gender care for children” have now pulled back the reins on such care. And, the United Kingdom is shutting down it’s main transgender youth clinic after a review criticized its waiting lists and “lack of consensus about how the health service should assess, diagnose and treat young people seeking gender services.”
Dr. Erica Anderson, a clinical psychologist who previously worked at the University of California San Francisco’s gender clinic, told the outlet that she’s afraid children are being subject to “irreversible physical changes” and said that it’s “irresponsible” for medical professionals to use suicide risk to pressure parents into consenting to transgender treatment for their children.
“As a clinical psychologist, I don’t do a suicide assessment by membership in a class. The level of risk varies tremendously across individuals,” Anderson said.
Dr. Annelou de Vries, a Dutch researcher and specialist in child and adolescent psychiatry, told Reuters that there is “no evidence” that “providing care immediately leads to a decline in self harm or would prevent suicide.”