The Texas Supreme Court ruled in favor of a state law banning sex change procedures for children on Friday.
The law prevents minors from accessing hormone therapies, puberty blockers and transition surgeries. The court’s 8-1 decision rejected complaints from parents stating the ban violates their children’s rights to seek medical care.
“We conclude the Legislature made a permissible, rational policy choice to limit the types of available medical procedures for children, particularly in light of the relative nascency of both gender dysphoria and its various modes of treatment and the Legislature’s express constitutional authority to regulate the practice of medicine,” the ruling states.
The court upheld the ban on surgeries that sterilize the child, mastectomies and the removal of any otherwise healthy or non-diseased body part or tissue.
“We have said — and we reaffirm today — that fit parents have a fundamental interest in directing care, custody, and control of their children free from government,” the ruling states.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote on X that his office will do everything possible to ensure doctors follow the law.
Texas Values, the leading law and policy organization that advocated for the passage of HB14, provided legal support for the law at the Texas Supreme Court.
“No child deserves a false sense of hope from the unscientific idea that they are not really the sex they are born. Today, the Texas Supreme Court agrees! This decision affirms what we already know, that doctors cannot mutilate children in the name of healthcare,” Jonathan Covey, Director of Policy for Texas Values, said in a statement.
In April, the Idaho Supreme Court ruled in favor of banning sex change surgeries for minors. The Idaho Supreme Court also barred doctors from prescribing hormone therapy and puberty blockers.
