The United States Supreme Court has announced a landmark decision upholding Tennessee’s law restricting gender-transition interventions for minors and affirming the State’s authority to protect kids from risky and unproven medical practices.

Tennessee’s lawmakers enacted the challenged legislation in response to a surge in the provision of puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries to minors with gender-identity issues. These medical interventions often result in permanent physical changes and have life-altering effects, including irreversible loss of fertility. Numerous health authorities have concluded that the risks of these interventions outweigh any possible benefit.

“In today’s historic Supreme Court win, the common sense of Tennessee voters prevailed over judicial activism,” said Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti. “A bipartisan supermajority of Tennessee’s elected representatives carefully considered the evidence and voted to protect kids from irreversible decisions they cannot yet fully understand.  I commend the Tennessee legislature and Governor Lee for their courage in passing this legislation and supporting our litigation despite withering opposition from the Biden administration, LGBT special interest groups, social justice activists, the American Medical Association, the American Bar Association, and even Hollywood.”

As Chief Justice John Roberts writes in the 6-3 opinion of the Court: “This case carries with it the weight of fierce scientific and policy debates about the safety, efficacy, and propriety of medical treatments in an evolving field. The voices in these debates raise sincere concerns; the implications for all are profound. The Equal Protection Clause does not resolve these disagreements. Nor does it afford us license to decide them as we see best. Our role is not ‘to judge the wisdom, fairness, or logic’ of the law before us, but only to ensure that it does not violate the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment. Having concluded it does not, we leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process.”

“The rapid and unexplained rise in the number of kids seeking these life-altering interventions, despite the lack of supporting evidence, calls for careful scrutiny from our elected leaders,” Attorney General Skrmetti asserted. “This victory transcends politics. It’s about real Tennessee kids facing real struggles. Families across our state and our nation deserve solutions based on science, not ideology. Today’s landmark decision recognizes that the Constitution lets us fulfill society’s highest calling—protecting our kids.”

The Tennessee Equality Project says it is a sad day for transgender adults and youth.

“We are profoundly disappointed by the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to side with the Tennessee legislature’s anti-transgender ideology and further erode the rights of transgender children and their families and doctors. We are grateful to the plaintiffs, families, and the ACLU for fighting on behalf more than 1.3 million transgender adults and 300,000 youth across the nation.

According to the Project, Gender-affirming care is proven to save lives. Major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, support gender-affirming medical and psychological care because it saves lives and improves mental well-being. Providers, pediatricians, and specialists have been making thoughtful, evidence-based, and age-appropriate health care decisions with families and transgender patients for decades.

The Project also maintains that equal access to health care and bodily autonomy are fundamental human rights for every person, including our transgender children and youth. Instead of protecting young transgender people across the nation, states will now feel emboldened to codify discrimination more broadly in health care. This ruling is yet another example of why governments, politicians, courts, and extremists have no place in the exam room, endangering every transgender person. The consequences of this devastating decision will be felt by anyone who needs gender-affirming care; worse for transgender patients already facing widespread discrimination in hostile states.