Justices ruled 8–1 in favor of the law.
A Texas law that bans doctors from performing sex change surgeries for children does not violate the Texas Constitution, the state’s Supreme Court ruled on June 28.
“The legislature made a permissible, rational policy choice to limit the types of available medical procedures for children, particularly in light of the relative nascency of both gender dysphoria and its various modes of treatment and the legislature’s express constitutional authority to regulate the practice of medicine. We therefore conclude the statute does not unconstitutionally deprive parents of their rights or physicians or health,” Texas Supreme Court Justice Rebecca Huddle wrote for the majority.
The law in question prohibits a range of procedures and drugs for children who believe they are or might be a different gender, including castration and hormones. It took effect in September 2023.
Texas District Judge Maria Cantu Hexsel previously ruled that parents and children who sued over the law were likely to prevail in their challenge. The law likely violates the Texas Constitution “by infringing upon the fundamental right of parents to make decision concerning the case, custody, and control of their children,” she wrote in her ruling.
The Texas Supreme Court later issued an order rejecting an attempt to block the law from going into effect as it considered the case.
In the new ruling, the majority said that it was not weighing in on appropriate treatments for children with gender dysphoria. “The question we are called upon to answer is a distinctly legal one: whether plaintiffs in this case have established a probable right to relief on their claims that the legislature’s prohibition of certain treatments for children suffering from gender dysphoria violates the Texas Constitution,” Justice Huddle said.
While parents have a fundamental interest in taking care of and controlling their children free from government interference, “this interest is not absolute,” according to the ruling. It added: “When developments in our society raise new and previously unconsidered questions about the appropriate line between parental autonomy on the one hand and the legislature’s authority to regulate the practice of medicine on the other, our Constitution does not render the legislature powerless to provide answers.”
