ACLU Sues Indiana Over New Law Barring Minors’ Transgender Care

The American Civil Liberties Union sued Indiana on Wednesday to halt its enforcement of a new law that bars transgender minors from receiving evidence-based and medically necessary gender-affirming care.

The complaint filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of Indiana on behalf of classes led by four minors, their parents, a doctor, and her medical practice challenges S.E.A. 480. Gov. Eric Holcomb (R) signed the bill Wednesday, making Indiana at least the 13th state to ban gender-affirming care for minors.

Many of those laws have been challenged in court, including one in Arkansas that has been halted by a federal court there.

Attorney General Todd Rokita (R) said in statement provided to Bloomberg Law that he is ready to defend the law in court. The law “protects our children from irreversible and damaging decisions,” and Holcomb made the right choice in signing it, Rokita said.

“This law would be devastating to trans youth and their families, causing them serious injuries and forcing those who can to uproot their lives and leave the state to access the gender-affirming care they need,” Ken Falk, ACLU of Indiana legal director, said in a statement also provided to Bloomberg Law. ACLU of Indiana is co-counsel in the case.

The state lacks reasonable justifications for the law, which violates the minors’ equal protection rights as guaranteed by the 14th Amendment by discriminating against them on the basis of sex, including transgender status, the plaintiffs say. It also “inappropriately invades bodily autonomy and prohibits the delivery of medically necessary health care,” thereby violating the minors’ due process rights, they say.

‘Gender Transition’

Indiana’s law defines “gender transition” as “the process in which an individual shifts from identifying with and living as a gender that corresponds to his or her sex to identifying with and living as a gender different from his or her sex” that may involve social, legal, or physical changes.

Gender transition procedures are defined as “any medical or surgical service” that alters or removes sex-related anatomical characteristics or instills physiological or anatomical characteristics that resemble a different sex, including puberty blocking drugs, hormone therapy, or surgeries knowingly performed to assist a person’s gender transition, the plaintiffs say.

There are exceptions for people born with verifiable sexual development disorders; treatments related to infections, injuries, diseases, or disorders; and mental-health services, the plaintiffs say. Licensed physicians specifically are precluded from providing gender-affirming care, and people who’ve receive such care or their parents can sue a doctor for damages, they say.

The provision, which is scheduled to take effect July 1, will deny medically necessary care to transgender minors, the plaintiffs say. Withholding this treatment will put them in danger of extreme harm to both their physical and mental health, they say.

S.E.A. 480 violates the parents’ rights to direct their children’s health care, and violates the doctor and practice’s First Amendment free speech rights, the complaint says. The law also violates and is preempted by the Affordable Care Act’s Section 1557, which prohibits discrimination in health-care programs.

The complaint asks the court to declare the law unconstitutional and issue preliminary and permanent injunctions blocking its enforcement.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the ACLU of Indiana represent the proposed classes.

The case is K.C. v. Ind. Members of Med. Licensing Bd. of Ind., S.D. Ind., No. 23-cv-595, complaint filed 4/5/23.