A Trump-appointed judge in Indiana has blocked parts of a state law banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth from going into effect next month.
The law, known as SEA 480, which Indiana's Republican-controlled legislature passed earlier this year, prohibits physicians from providing minors with treatments such as puberty blocking medication, hormone therapy and surgery intended to help transition genders.
But US District Court Judge James Patrick Hanlon, who was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump in 2018, issued a preliminary injunction Friday that blocks the ban on most of those treatments. His order does, however, allow the prohibition on gender reassignment surgeries for minors to take effect on July 1, as planned.
"Because Plaintiffs have some likelihood of success on the merits of constitutional claims, a preliminary injunction is in the public interest," Hanlon said in a 34-page opinion. "While the State has a strong interest in enforcing democratically enacted laws, that interest decreases as Plaintiffs' likelihood of success on the merits of their constitutional claims increases."
"And for the reasons above, Plaintiffs risk suffering irreparable harm absent an injunction," Hanlon continued.
The decision comes after the American Civil Liberties Union sued to stop the law from going into effect on behalf of four transgender youth and their families, a physician and a health care clinic, shortly after Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the measure in early April.
"Today's victory is a testament to the trans youth of Indiana, their families, and their allies, who never gave up the fight to protect access to gender- affirming care and who will continue to defend the right of all trans people to be their authentic selves, free from discrimination," Kevin Falk, the legal director for the ACLU of Indiana, said in a statement following the preliminary injunction. "We won't rest until this unconstitutional law is struck down for good."
CNN has reached out to Holcomb's office for comment.
Transgender youths' access to gender-affirming care -- medically necessary, evidence-based care that uses a multidisciplinary approach to help a person transition from the gender they were designated at birth to the gender by which they want to be known -- has become a flashpoint in red states across the country.
Some Republicans have expressed concern over long-term outcomes and whether children should be able to make such consequential decisions, even with parental consent. In contrast, major medical associations say such care is clinically appropriate for children and adults with gender dysphoria -- a psychological distress that may result when a person's gender identity and sex assigned at birth do not align, according to the American Psychiatric Association.
Lawmakers in more than a dozen states have moved this year to restrict gender-affirming care for minors.
But similar to Indiana, judges in several states have blocked some of those laws from going into effect, including in Missouri, Alabama, Arkansas and more recently in Florida.
