Indiana’s Ban On Transgender Medical Services For Minors Can Take Effect, Court Rules

 Indiana’s ban on minors receiving transgender medical services can take effect immediately, a federal court ruled this week.

On Tuesday, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals lifted an injunction a lower court approved against the ban in June, FOX59 News reported.

Indiana’s ban, which was signed into law back in April, prohibits gender surgeries, cross-sex hormones, and puberty blockers for Indiana residents under 18.

The law was initially set to take effect last July. Instead, it took effect on Tuesday when the appeals court’s decision was handed down.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) challenged the law last summer, filing a lawsuit on behalf of four trans-identifying people and an Indiana doctor who provides transgender medical services.

The ban also prohibits “aiding or abetting another physician or practitioner in the provision of gender transition procedures to a minor.”

“Permanent gender-changing surgeries with lifelong impacts and medically prescribed preparation for such a transition should occur as an adult, not as a minor,” Indiana Republican Governor Eric Holcomb said upon signing the bill.

“There has and will continue to be debate within the medical community about the best ways to provide physical and mental health care for adolescents who are struggling with their own gender identity, and it is important that we recognize and understand those struggles are real,” the governor said at the time.

Just a day earlier, however, the governor had complained that the bill was “clear as mud.”

“It wasn’t part of my agenda,” Holcomb told reporters. “I’ve told some people very close to me: This is clear as mud. There’s some vagueness to it. So I want to make sure I completely understand.”

The bill’s author, state Senator Tyler Johnson, a Republican, said at the time that his bill is a “common-sense policy to help protect kids.”

A total of 23 states have now banned or restricted transgender medical services for minors.

Those states are Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, and West Virginia.

Critics have sounded the alarm about the permanent effects of these treatments and procedures.

Hundreds of teen girls in the U.S., some as young as 12, have gotten elective, gender-related double mastectomies to remove their healthy breasts over the last few years.

 

Both puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones come with serious health risks. Puberty blockers can affect bone growth and density and cause sexual dysfunction, voice damage, and infertility, among other issues. Cross-sex hormones can cause infertility, deadly blood clots, heart attacks, increased cancer risks of the breasts and ovaries, liver dysfunction, worsening psychological illness, and other serious conditions.

Meanwhile, it is more popular than ever for youth to adopt new gender identities. An estimated 300,000 minors aged 13 to 17 identified as transgender as of 2022, and the number has only continued to grow since then.