The American Bar Association (ABA), an organization dedicated to advancing the U.S. legal profession that has existed for nearly a century and a half, has released a statement condemning Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The ABA has also filed an amicus brief to the United States Supreme Court, urging justices to reject the law in a case that’s set to come before them in the next judicial term.
The law, which was enacted in 2023, bans the use of puberty blockers, hormone treatments and surgeries for transgender children in the state, but doesn’t enact restrictions on similar treatments when they are required by cisgender youth for their own health needs. Gender-affirming care treatments are widely viewed as life-saving, and several medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, oppose the bans that conservative-governed states have passed throughout the U.S.
Upon the passage of the Tennessee bill into law, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and Lambda Legal sued to have it blocked. The Supreme Court agreed to hear the case in June, scheduling it for the docket to be heard in the upcoming term.
In a statement over the summer, ACLU staff attorney Lucas Cameron-Vaughn said that the law was harmful to transgender youth and their families, writing:
Tennesseans deserve the freedom to live their lives as their authentic selves without government interference, yet every day this law remains in place, it inflicts further pain and injustice on trans youth and their families. The Court has the power to protect trans youth’s right to access the healthcare they need by striking down this discriminatory law.
Several organizations have already filed amicus briefs to the case — formal statements submitted to the Supreme Court based on legal reasoning by groups that aren’t technically part of the case but have a vested interest in the final ruling. The ABA filed its brief earlier this month.
In a statement earlier this week, the organization said that Tennessee’s ban forced parents to watch the state enact harm upon their children.
“The idea that the state can force parents to watch their child suffer when safe, appropriate, science-backed medical treatment is available is fundamentally anathema to our constitutional history and traditions,” the ABA said.
The organization makes similar arguments in its brief to the Supreme Court, while also noting that nearly identical types of treatment for cisgender children are still available, a blatant act of discrimination.
“The ABA respectfully urges the Court to hold that the [Constitution’s] Equal Protection Clause bars Tennessee from banning gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth while allowing essentially identical treatments for others,” the ABA said in its brief. “A decision upholding [the Tennessee statute] would deny on a discriminatory basis urgently needed medical care to one of the nation’s most vulnerable groups and infringe on their fundamental right to medical and bodily autonomy.”
Equal access to gender-affirming medical care is critical for the wellbeing and dignity of transgender youth. The treatments to help adolescents conform to their gender identity at issue in this case are safe and medically accepted.
“By denying to transgender youth the same generally accepted medical treatments available to others, [the Tennessee law] impermissibly discriminates in the exercise of the rights to medical and bodily autonomy,” the ABA said.
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