A federal appeals court this week ruled that the state of Arkansas is allowed to ban “gender transition” procedures for minors, reversing a lower court’s decision that blocked the law from taking effect.
The state has a “compelling interest” in “protecting the physical and psychological health of minors,” the Aug. 12 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit held.
Arkansas passed the law in 2021, with the state Legislature voting to override then-Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto. The measure, titled the Save Adolescents From Experimentation (SAFE) Act, prohibits a “physician or other health care professional” from providing “gender transition procedures to any individual” under 18 years old.
A federal district judge struck the law down in 2023, claiming it violated the constitutional rights of children who believe they are the opposite sex and who seek to alter their bodies to align with that conviction.
In its ruling this week the appeals court said the Arkansas law “regulates a class of procedures, not people.” It noted that the Supreme Court “leaves wide discretion for medical legislation to the more politically accountable bodies, especially in areas of medical uncertainty.”
Parents, meanwhile, “do not have unlimited authority to make medical decisions for their children,” the court said, citing Supreme Court precedent.
The court said it did not find a “deeply rooted right of parents to exempt their children from regulations reasonably prohibiting gender transition procedures.”
In a statement after the ruling, Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin said he “applaud[ed] the court’s decision recognizing that Arkansas has a compelling interest in protecting the physical and psychological health of children.”
Griffin said he was “pleased that children in Arkansas will be protected from risky, experimental procedures with lifelong consequences.”
The ruling comes weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on performing transgender procedures on minors.
The appeals court ruling this week heavily cited that June ruling from the high court. In that decision, Chief Justice John Robert said the Supreme Court “leaves [the] question” of banning such procedures “to the people’s representatives.”
Justice Elena Kagan, on the other hand, argued that the Tennessee law “undermines fundamental liberties and sets a dangerous precedent for state overreach.”
The court rulings come amid a broader public shift regarding transgender policy.
Several children’s hospitals across the country that have performed transgender surgeries on minors have halted the procedures in response to President Donald Trump’s executive actions and his administration’s regulatory changes regarding the controversial medical practice.
Trump in January also signed an executive order to end “radical gender ideology” in the military, reversing former President Joe Biden’s directive that allowed soldiers who identify as transgender to serve in the armed forces.
A U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, published last year, found that more than 3% of U.S. high schoolers identify as transgender.
