Yesterday in a 5-3 decision the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed a U.S. District Judge’s injunction against the enforcement of Idaho House Bill 71. The bill signed into law in April 2023 bans doctors from providing minors the “puberty blocker” leuprorelin, cross-sex hormones, or performing surgeries that sterilize, mutilate, or artificially construct tissue that alters the appearance of genitalia.
Activists have challenged the law, with the ACLU of Idaho responding to the Supreme Court’s decision to narrow the injunction, stating in a press release:
While the Court’s ruling today importantly does not touch upon the constitutionality of this law, it is nonetheless an awful result for transgender youth and their families across the state. Today’s ruling allows the state to shut down the care that thousands of families rely on while sowing further confusion and disruption. Nonetheless, today’s result only leaves us all the more determined to defeat this law in the courts entirely, making Idaho a safer state to raise every family.
Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador stated in a press release:
The state has a duty to protect and support all children, and that’s why I’m proud to defend Idaho’s law that ensures children are not subjected to these life-altering drugs and procedures. Those suffering from gender dysphoria deserve love, support, and medical care rooted in biological reality. Denying the basic truth that boys and girls are biologically different hurts our kids. No one has the right to harm children, and I’m grateful that we, as the state, have the power — and duty — to protect them.
