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A Missouri judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked an emergency ban on childhood gender transition just hours before it was set to go into effect, UPI reported. St. Louis County Circuit Judge Ellen Ribaudo stopped Attorney General Andrew Bailey‘s emergency rule on transgender healthcare, which would apply to all ages from taking effect, delaying it until 5 p.m. Monday, when Ribaudo plans to issue a second ruling.
The temporary stay comes after a lawsuit was filed Monday by the ACLU and Lambda Legal on behalf of a group of gender-dysphoric minors and healthcare companies and staff. “The attorney general’s so-called emergency rule is based on distorted, misleading and debunked claims and ignores the overwhelming body of scientific and medical evidence supporting this care as well as the medical experts and doctors who work with transgender people every day,” the ACLU and Lambda Legal said earlier this month.
Bailey, a Republican, submitted the rule limiting hormone therapy and gender transitions for children and some adults, unless certain conditions are met. The rule requires people to have experienced an “intense pattern” of documented gender dysphoria for three years and to have received at least 15 hourly sessions with a therapist over at least 18 months before receiving puberty blockers, hormones, surgery or other treatment. Patients must be screened for autism and social media addiction. Any psychiatric symptoms from mental health issues would have to be treated and resolved. Some would be able to maintain prescriptions while undergoing assessments.
A spokesperson for Bailey said the office will “continue fighting for all patients to have access to adequate healthcare.”
Bailey issued the restrictions following an investigation of the Washington University Transgender Center at St Louis Children’s Hospital, prompted by a former employee who alleged the center was treating children without informed consent, with not enough individualized case review and mental health services.
Republican lawmakers across the United States have proposed hundreds of laws aimed at transgenderism. At least 13 states have restricted or banned gender transition for minors.
