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Court Upholds Missouri Ban On Trans Treatments On Minors

A Missouri court on Monday upheld a state law banning gender-affirming health care for minors and prohibiting Medicaid from covering transition-related care, allowing the controversial law to remain in place following a nine-day trial in September.

Wright County Circuit Judge Craig Carter wrote in a 74-page ruling Monday that Missouri’s 2023 law is constitutional, rejecting a legal challenge brought against it by three transgender teenagers, medical providers and two LGBTQ advocacy organizations.

Carter added he believes there is “an almost total lack of consensus as to the medical ethics of adolescent gender dysphoria treatment.”

“Regarding the ethics of adolescent gender-affirming treatment, it would seem that the medical profession stands in the middle of an ethical minefield, with scant evidence to lead it out,” he wrote.

Missouri’s Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey, whose office launched an investigation into a pediatric transgender clinic last year and briefly restricted gender-affirming care for minors and some adults under an emergency rule it terminated after one month, called Monday’s decision “a resounding victory for our children.”

“I’m extremely proud of the thousands of hours my office put in to shine a light on the lack of evidence supporting these irreversible procedures,” Bailey said in a statement that also referred to gender-affirming medical care for youth as “child mutilation.”

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