The
ruling came after a judge last Friday blocked the law in
response to a challenge by the families of transgender children
and doctors. The law is set to take effect Friday.
"Today’s cruel ruling places Texas’ transgender youth, and the
families and medical professionals who love and care for them,
directly in harm’s way," lawyers for the families said in a
joint statement.
The Texas Attorney General's Office did not immediately respond
to a request for comment. The state had filed the appeal to the
Supreme Court, which automatically put the lower court's order
on hold and allowed the law to take effect as scheduled.
The families' lawyers asked the state's highest court for an
emergency order again blocking the law while the appeal is
heard, but the court rebuffed the request, without giving a
reason.
Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, signed the law in June.
Texas is one of at least 20 states that have banned or
restricted gender-affirming care for minors.
Supporters of such bans have said the treatments are unproven
and risky. Mainstream U.S. medical groups have opposed the bans
and maintain that gender-affirming care improves transgender
patients' mental health and reduces the risk of suicide.
In her ruling last Friday, District Judge Maria Cantu Hexsel of
Travis County in Austin found the families were likely to
succeed in challenging the law, which she wrote "stands directly
at odds with parents' fundamental right to make decisions
concerning the care of their children."
Hexsel, who was elected as a Democrat, also found that the law
discriminates against transgender youth based on their
transgender status, interfering with doctors' relationships with
patients and their right to practice medicine.
Several other similar state laws have been blocked by judges,
though a federal appeals court earlier in August revived
Alabama's ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alexia
Garamfalvi and Jonathan Oatis)
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