A panel of judges on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 Wednesday that the law's restrictions are within the purview of the Indiana General Assembly and do not infringe on the constitutional rights of children, their parents or medical providers.
Wednesday's ruling follows a February decision by the Chicago-based appeals court that allowed the law to take effect by removing a temporary injunction that had blocked the law. The new ruling vacates that injunction entirely and definitively authorizes state officials to enforce the law.
Indiana’s law was enacted in spring 2023 amid a national push by GOP-led legislatures to protect minors from such procedures.
It was slated to go into effect on July 1, 2023, but the month before, U.S. District Court Judge James Patrick Hanlon issued an injunction preventing most of the law from taking effect. Hanlon blocked the state from prohibiting minors’ access to hormone therapies and puberty blockers but allowed the law’s prohibition against gender manipulation surgeries.
Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita, a conservative Republican, said Wednesday in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the appeals court ruling “is a huge win for Hoosiers and will help protect our most precious gift from God — our children."
“By rejecting the injunction against our commonsense state law, dangerous and irreversible gender-transition procedures for minors will remain banned in Indiana,” he added.
