Woodhull Calls on SCOTUS to Protect Trans Youth’s Access to Gender-Affirming Healthcare
On December 4, 2024, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in U.S. v. Skrmetti, a case that is critical to safeguarding transgender youth’s access to lifesaving gender-affirming healthcare. The case challenges Tennessee Senate Bill 1, which bans gender-affirming care for minors; Governor Bill Lee signed the bill into law in March 2023. The law prohibits medical providers from performing any gender-affirming care for minors, including prescribing hormones and puberty blockers. For trans youth who were already receiving gender-affirming care in the state, the law forced providers to end that care by March 31, 2024. The law also creates new liability for medical professionals by giving minors and their parents the ability to sue providers if they claim to have suffered “harm” related to gender-affirming treatment while also giving the state’s attorney general the power to fine providers $25,000 per violation of the law.
The challenge to the ban on medically necessary healthcare for transgender minors originally came from Samantha and Brian Williams of Nashville, Tennessee, along with their 15-year-old transgender daughter. In April 2023, the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Tennessee, Lambda Legal, and Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP sued the State of Tennessee on behalf of the Williams family, two other families who have remained anonymous, and Memphis-based medical doctor Dr. Susan Lacy.
In an ACLU press release on the case, Samantha and Brian Williams’ daughter explains why the Supreme Court must strike down the ban in Tennessee, “I’m fighting this law because I know how important this care is for tens of thousands of transgender youth like me.” She goes on to state, “It scares me to think about losing the medication that I need, and if this law continues, my family may have to leave Tennessee – the place I have lived and loved my entire life. And with so many new laws like Tennessee’s, it is hard to imagine where we can even go. I want the Justices to know transgender people are not going away and that we deserve the same rights as everyone else.”
Woodhull recognizes the gravity of this case to protect transgender youth’s right to health and urges the Supreme Court to rule in favor of the plaintiffs. This case not only determines transgender youth’s access to gender-affirming care in Tennessee but has implications throughout the country. The Supreme Court’s ruling could determine if bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, which have been passed in 26 states, violate the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The Justices must determine that gender identity discrimination is to be analyzed under intermediate scrutiny and hand down a decision that recognizes the Tennessee ban as unconstitutional.
Ricci Joy Levy, Woodhull President and CEO, stated, “Gender-affirming healthcare bans targeting trans youth are cruel and unconstitutional.” She went on to explain that, “These bans cause physical and emotional harm not only for trans youth, but also hurt their parents who are seeking to protect the health and safety of their children, as all parents should be able to do. The Supreme Court must take this opportunity to be unequivocal in recognizing the human dignity of transgender youth and their right to equal protections under the law as enshrined in the Constitution. Such a ruling is necessary to protect transgender youth in Tennessee and throughout the country from laws that discriminate based on gender identity and interfere with young people’s right to access healthcare.”