The following comes from the Free Press. To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
In a 6–3 decision handed down June 18, the Supreme Court of the United States has upheld the ability of the states to ban or restrict so-called “gender-affirming” medical care for minors. This landmark decision will help bring this medical scandal to a deservedly ignominious end.
Since the earliest days of The Free Press, we have been documenting this movement that claimed it was providing lifesaving medical treatments to young people suffering from gender dysphoria—that is, distress at their biological sex. In less than two decades, what was once an extremely rare diagnosis became so common that at least 100 clinics in the U.S. opened to provide medical interventions intended to help children pass as members of the opposite sex.
The number of young people in the West seeking such treatments has exploded. And, in a break with history, in which a small number of boys expressed the desire to change sex, this rise was fueled by adolescent girls, many who had never expressed previous gender distress. In the U.S., between 320,000 and 400,000 minors received a diagnosis of gender dysphoria or related diagnosis between 2017–2023, according to an analysis by the Manhattan Institute. The UK reported a twentyfold increase over a decade.
In its decision in United States v. Skrmetti, the Court concluded that restricting the ability of minors in Tennessee to get medical transition treatment “does not violate equal protection guarantees.” “The ruling effectively establishes a path forward for states to restrict practices their legislatures regard as harmful and inadequately regulated,” said Leor Sapir, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. “A second-order effect, one can hope, is that the ruling will draw more attention to the flimsy evidence base, lack of reasonable clinical rationale, and ethical problems in the provision of these interventions to minors.”
The ruling comes at a time when the ground is already shifting underneath those advocating such transitions. In recent years, about half the states, generally red ones, have placed restrictions on transitioning minors. A number of clinics have closed as a result.
An early Trump administration act was an executive order declaring the federal government would no longer “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another,” and that it would “rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
Just last week, one of the country’s largest and most prominent pediatric gender clinics in one of the bluest states, California’s Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, announced that it will shut the doors of its Center for Transyouth Health and Development. According to hospital executives, the decision was the result of “a lengthy and thorough assessment of the increasingly severe impacts of federal administrative actions and proposed policies”—including the “administration’s intent to take swift and decisive action, both criminal and civil, against any entity it views as being in violation of the executive order.” The hospital leaders decided they could no longer risk providing such treatment to its nearly 3,000 patients.
The Court’s ruling is narrow; it says that a state has the right to regulate the practice. States, mostly blue, that still allow youth gender transition aren’t affected. But the decision will likely lend weight to the arguments of people who want to end the practice nationwide. And it will likely help the legal efforts by “detransitioners”—that is, young people who say they were pressured into life-altering treatments they now regret—to get compensation. Surely more such lawsuits will now be filed. Gender transition clinics will likely be under far more scrutiny: This Free Press story describes the cases of two such young women who were given prescriptions for testosterone after about a 30-minute appointment at Planned Parenthood.
To read the full article, CLICK HERE.
MaryannJune 25, 2025
The words "medical scandal" in the first paragraph of this article are very appropriate. It is absolutely shocking that our nation would allow minors to make these dramatic life changing decisions. It is one of the worst form of child abuse. Minors are not in any way competent or mature enough to make a decision that will change their lives forever, a decision that sometimes leads to suicide. The other side of this scandal is the abuse of parental rights. NO ONE has the "right" to limit a parent's knowledge, or to usurp parental control regarding these decisions.