A growing wave of legal rulings is backing conservative states’ efforts to prioritize biological sex over “gender identity” in medical care for minors and school policies, highlighting a widening divide with more liberal jurisdictions.
Federal appeals courts, supported by recent Supreme Court guidance, have upheld laws restricting so-called gender-transition treatments for children and enforcing sex-based distinctions in school facilities.
The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently refused to block Oklahoma’s ban on medical sex change treatments for minors.
This ruling upheld a lower court decision that delayed review pending the Supreme Court’s evaluation of a similar Tennessee law.
The panel, made up of judges appointed by Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, found that minors seeking puberty blockers and hormones—and their parents’ due process claims—were unlikely to succeed under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause.
The court cited concerns about permanent health risks of sex change procedures for minors, including “impaired brain development, poor educational development, impact to bone density, underdeveloped genitalia, and infertility,” according to Just the News.
It noted ongoing medical debates but concluded Oklahoma had a “legitimate interest in the health and welfare of its children.”
The court ruled the law’s age and