Federal appeals court upholds Indiana’s trans youth gender-affirming care ban

A federal appeals court said Indiana’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth is constitutional. The 2023 law was part of a national push that proposed more than 500 anti-LGBTQ+ measures.

The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 that Indiana’s ban does not infringe on the constitutional rights of transgender youth or their parents.

SEA 480 bans medicinal and surgical gender-affirming care for transgender youth and prevents providers from “aiding and abetting” parents seeking that treatment outside of the state.

Gender-affirming care is health care that encompasses mental, social, medicinal and surgical care designed to treat gender dysphoria. And gender dysphoria is a clinically significant distress experienced by people whose gender assigned at birth and gender identity don’t match — though not all transgender people experience gender dysphoria.

The vast majority of medical organizations support gender-affirming care, and there is national and international guidance on age-appropriate interventions for transgender youth.

The treatments banned by the law — including puberty blockers and hormone therapies — are still available for cisgender youth. In the majority ruling, the judges wrote “there is no evidence that [the law] is a pretext designed to discriminate against transgender people.”

READ MORE: Indiana's slate of anti-LGBTQ+ bills part of national fight over 2020 Supreme Court decision
 

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The dissenting opinion from Circuit Judge Candace Jackson-Akiwumi largely rested on the infringement of free speech for gender-affirming care providers. She said the law’s ban on providers in Indiana talking about out-of-state, legal gender-affirming care resources violates the First Amendment.

“My colleagues appear moved by the good intentions that Indiana contends underpin SEA 480’s aiding and abetting provision. But it is axiomatic that a state cannot ensnare free speech just because it means well,” Jackson-Akiwumi wrote.

The Seventh Circuit’s ruling vacates the injunction, which it had already struck down in February allowing the ban to take effect.

Indiana’s 2023 law shares nearly identical language to Tennessee’s ban, which will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in December.

Lauren is our digital editor. Contact her at lauren@ipbnews.org or follow her on Twitter at @laurenechapman_.