The Biden administration is difficult Tennessee’s newly handed regulation banning gender-transition medicine and surgical procedures for youngsters, accusing the state of unlawful discrimination based mostly on “transgender status.”
The Justice Department lawsuit, filed Wednesday, seeks to dam Senate Bill 1 earlier than it takes impact July 1, alleging that the measure “denies medical care to youth based solely on who they are,” violating the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause.
“SB 1 will cause immense and irreparable physical and psychological harm to many transgender minors diagnosed with gender dysphoria by terminating their access to necessary medical treatment and impose harm on their parents and medical providers,” mentioned the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee in Nashville.
Sixteen states have handed payments barring these beneath 18 from accessing gender-transition procedures.
The Justice Department joined final 12 months a lawsuit difficult Alabama’s regulation, often known as Senate Bill 184, introduced by a number of households of youngsters receiving therapy and docs.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee mentioned that he and Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti would struggle to uphold the laws, which the Republican governor signed into regulation March 2.
“Tennessee is committed to protecting children from permanent, life-altering decisions,” Mr. Lee mentioned. “This is federal overreach at its worst, and we will work with Attorney General Skrmetti to push back in court and stand up for children.”
The invoice prohibits a “healthcare provider from performing on a minor or administering to a minor a medical procedure if the performance or administration of the procedure is for the purpose of enabling a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor’s sex.”
Mr. Skrmetti mentioned that the “federal government has joined the ACLU and an elite New York law firm in attacking a bipartisan law that protects children from irreversible harm,” referring to the regulation agency Akin Gump.
The Justice Department mentioned it might “continue to aggressively challenge all forms of discrimination and unlawful barriers faced by the LGBTQI+ community.”
“No person should be denied access to necessary medical care just because of their transgender status,” mentioned Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, who heads the civil rights division. “The right to consider your health and medically-approved treatment options with your family and doctors is a right that everyone should have, including transgender children, who are especially vulnerable to serious risks of depression, anxiety and suicide.”
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