Harming Texas children
Texas Supreme Court gets it very wrong in ruling on gender-affirming care for trans youth The Texas Supreme Court recently ruled that blocking parents from providing gender-affirming care to their children is just fine: “The Texas Supreme Court upheld a recent state law that prohibits doctors from prescribing gender-affirming care to transgender minors after parents and medical professionals challenged the constitutionality of the restriction,” reports The Texas Tribune.
And what was the reasoning of this 8-1 decision? Well, it’s “complicated,” as the court’s decision reads. The opinion said that “the most appropriate treatment for a child suffering from gender dysphoria” is a “complicated question.” Me: Who should answer this “complicated question?” Texas Supreme Court: “Doctors…” Me: Yes!
Texas Supreme Court: “…and legislators.” Me: “Ugh! You were SO close!” “[W]e 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 decision.
OK, sure. It’s important for the medical field to be regulated in some way. I’ll give them that (though one could argue that Texas isn’t doing such a great job).
