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A federal appeals court on Tuesday upheld an Arkansas law prohibiting doctors from providing gender transition medical treatment to minors, reversing a lower court decision that blocked the first-in-the-nation law.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 8-2 on Tuesday to overturn a lower court decision, now allowing the state to enforce the law. The appeals court cited the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June upholding a similar ban in Tennessee, in which the nation’s highest court ruled that the law was constitutional and did not discriminate against transgender people.
Referencing the Supreme Court’s decision, the appeals court agreed with Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, a Republican, that the law did not violate transgender minors’ equal protection rights under the U.S. Constitution.
“I applaud the court’s decision and am pleased that children in Arkansas will be protected from experimental procedures,” Griffin said in a statement following the ruling.
FEDERAL COURT REJECTS CHALLENGE TO OKLAHOMA LAW BANNING GENDER TRANSITION TREATMENT FOR MINORS
A federal appeals court has upheld an Arkansas law prohibiting doctors from providing gender transition medical treatment to minors. (ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images)
Arkansas Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders wrote on social media that the ruling “is a win for common sense — and for our kids.”
Arkansas became the first U.S. state to ban transgender treatments such as puberty blockers, hormones and surgery for minors in 2021, when the Republican-led legislature passed the ban after they overruled the veto of then-GOP Gov. Asa Hutchinson.
Four families of transgender children and two doctors challenged the law, arguing the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act violated parents’ due process rights under the U.S. Constitution’s Fourteenth Amendment.
Writing the majority opinion, U.S. Circuit Judge Duane Benton said parents have never had a right…
