The 8-1 ruling from the all-Republican court leaves in place a law that has been in effect since Sept. 1, 2023. Texas is the largest of at least 25 states that have adopted laws restricting or banning gender-manipulation medical treatments for transgender minors.
Most of those states face lawsuits, and the U.S. Supreme Court recently agreed to hear an appeal from the Biden administration attempting to block state bans on such care. The case before the high court involves a Tennessee law that restricts puberty blockers and hormone therapy for transgender minors, similar to the Texas law.
The Texas law prevents transgender minors from accessing hormone therapies, puberty blockers and transition surgeries. Children who had already started the medications that are now banned had to be weaned off in a "medically appropriate" manner.
"We conclude the Legislature made a permissible, rational policy choice to limit the types of available medical procedures for children, particularly in light of the relative nascency of both gender dysphoria and its various modes of treatment and the Legislature's express constitutional authority to regulate the practice of medicine," Justice Rebeca Aizpuru Huddle wrote in the court's decision.
The lawsuit that challenged the Texas law argued it has devastating consequences for transgender teens who are unable to obtain critical treatment recommended by their physicians and parents. The only justice dissenting with Friday's ruling said the Texas Supreme Court was allowing the state to "legislate away fundamental parental rights."
A lower court ruled the law unconstitutional, but it had been allowed to take effect while the state Supreme Court considered the case.
Texas officials defended the law as necessary to protect children, and noted a myriad of other restrictions for minors on tattoos, alcohol, tobacco and certain over-the-counter drugs.
Several doctors who treat transgender children testified in a lower court hearing that patients risk deteriorating mental health, which could possibly lead to suicide, if they are denied safe and effective treatment.
The Texas ban was signed into law by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who was the first governor to order the investigation of families of transgender minors who receive gender-affirming care.
During the legislative debate over the ban in 2023, transgender rights activists disrupted the Texas House with protests from the chamber gallery, which led to state police forcing demonstrators to move outside the building.
