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The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 Wednesday that the restrictions contained in Senate Enrolled Act 480 are well within the purview of the Indiana General Assembly, and the court found the law does not infringe on the constitutional rights of transgender children, their parents or medical providers.
That outcome was foreordained following oral arguments in February when the Chicago-based appeals court stayed a preliminary injunction against the law issued by a federal judge in Indianapolis shortly before the statute was to take effect July 1, 2023. The appellate court's new ruling vacates the injunction altogether and definitively authorizes state officials to enforce the law. As a result, Indiana hospitals and medical providers are legally barred from performing gender surgeries on individuals younger than 18 — which already weren't being performed on minors in Indiana — and also cannot administer hormone therapy or puberty-blocking drugs as a treatment for gender dysphoria.
Listen now and subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | RSS Feed | SoundStack | All Of Our Podcasts Doctors and other health care providers serving transgender children additionally are prohibited from referring their patients for continuing care elsewhere because the law authorizes the attorney general to go after the license of any practitioner who "aids or abets" in the provision of gender transition procedures for a minor. Following the ruling, Republican Attorney General Todd Rokita, a Munster native, issued a statement on X/Twitter celebrating the outcome. "The Seventh District Court of Appeal's (sic) decision today is a huge win for Hoosiers and will help protect our most precious gift from God — our children.
By rejecting the injunction against our commonsense state law, dangerous and irreversible gender-transition procedures for minors will remain banned in Indiana," Rokita said. When the law was adopted by the Republican-controlled General Assembly and Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb, Indiana joined more than a dozen states — now 24 — with similar laws restricting or banning gender-affirming care for minors.
The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments Dec.
4 in a challenge to a Tennessee statute similar to Indiana's and then issue a decision next year that likely will set a nationwide standard for access to gender-affirming care for minors..
