Appeals court allows Indiana gender-affirming care ban to remain in effect

An Indiana law banning gender-affirming care for minors will remain in effect, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.

A three-judge panel on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Indiana to block the law, which prohibits health care providers from administering gender-affirming medical care to transgender children and teens under 18. A federal appeals court in February lifted a temporary injunction that had stopped the law from taking effect, overturning a lower court decision.

Indiana’s Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the law, Senate Bill 480, last spring, one day after he called the measure “clear as mud.”

In a lawsuit filed the same day on behalf of four transgender children and their families, the ACLU of Indiana argued that the law violates the U.S. Constitution and “is vast government overreach.”

“This law takes away critical health care from a group of Hoosiers, leaving them and their parents in dire circumstances,” the group wrote in its lawsuit.

On Wednesday, the 7th Circuit panel said it disagreed, ruling that the ACLU has “not shown a likelihood of success on any of their claims.”

“These constitutional arguments threaten significant consequences. Appellees ask us to constitutionalize and thus take from Indiana the power to regulate a new and heavily debated medical treatment with unknown risks,” Judge Michael B. Brennan, who was appointed during President-elect Trump's first term, wrote for the majority. “If we hasten to set one side of the debate into constitutional stone, we will prevent Indiana from responding to tomorrow’s insights.

“Our Constitution is not so quick to act,” Brennan wrote. “By design, it provides a solution to just a few difficult questions and leaves the rest to the people. So will we.”

Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) called the decision “a huge win” for the state, which is controlled entirely by Republicans.

“By rejecting the injunction against our commonsense state law, dangerous and irreversible gender-transition procedures for minors will remain banned in Indiana,” he said in a post on the social platform X.

A spokesperson for the ACLU of Indiana said the group is “weighing our options.”

Since 2021, 24 states have enacted laws banning gender-affirming care for minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit group tracking LGBTQ laws.

Major medical associations have opposed laws restricting access to gender-affirming care, which they argue is medically necessary for transgender adults and minors.