One lone Texas Supreme Court justice dissented on Friday against the all-Republican court’s recent ruling to uphold the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
Texas is among the 25 states that have passed laws or policies banning gender-affirming care in those under the age of 18. Texas’ ban, passed in May 2023, prohibits health care providers from providing certain procedures and treatments for gender transitioning, gender assignment or gender dysphoria. It also prohibits the use of public money or assistance to provide said procedures and treatments.
In an 8-1 decision on Friday, the Texas Supreme Court overturned a lower court’s ruling to block the ban while it is legally challenged. The court’s majority wrote in its ruling that, “We conclude 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.”
Justice Debra Lehrmann, the sole judge to dissent the court’s ruling, wrote in her opinion, “While I agree that the Legislature has the general authority to regulate the practice of medicine, that authority is necessarily limited by the promises and protections of our Constitution; in fact, limiting the State’s intrusion into private action is the very reason for the Bill of Rights.”
Lehrmann added: “Thus, even when the Legislature exercises its delegated powers, it does so subject to the constitutional rights of citizens—not the other way around. If the Legislature’s enactments infringe upon a fundamental liberty interest, those enactments must be subjected to the appropriate constitutional scrutiny.”
She also argued that parental rights are at risk of being infringed upon in this decision, writing, “Surely the right of parents to make medical decisions, in consultation with their physicians, regarding the welfare of their children is worthy of more constitutional protection than the Court recognizes today. Concerningly, the Court’s opinion puts all parental decisions at risk of being overruled by the government.”
Newsweek has reached out to the Texas Supreme Court via email for comment.
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