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Credit: Mark Naymik<\/p>\nCredit: Mark Naymik<\/p>\n
This piece originally appeared in\u00a0Signal Ohio on 7\/22\/25<\/a>\u00a0and appears here with permission<\/p>\n by\u00a0Jake Zuckerman<\/a><\/p>\n The Ohio Supreme Court voted Tuesday to take up a challenge to a state law that prohibits doctors from providing puberty blocking drugs or cross-sex hormones to transgender minors.\u00a0<\/p>\n At issue is a\u00a0law<\/a>\u00a0that Statehouse Republicans passed in 2024 overriding the veto of Gov. Mike DeWine, also a Republican. It authorizes state officials to seek professional discipline of doctors who provide such care to minors and prohibits mental health professionals from diagnosing or treating minors for gender-related conditions without screening for other co-morbidities, abuse and trauma.\u00a0<\/p>\n The lawsuit was brought by two transgender children receiving gender affirming health care, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other private lawyers.\u00a0<\/p>\n A split panel on the Columbus-based 10th District Court of Appeals in April\u00a0deemed the law unconstitutional<\/a>. Judge Carly Edelstein found the law violated the children\u2019s rights under the Ohio Constitution to due process and equal protection under the law, given that non-transgender children can still receive puberty blockers for other endocrine disorders.\u00a0<\/p>\n She also found the law violated the Health Care Freedom constitutional amendment approved by voters amid the backlash to the Affordable Care Act under President Barack Obama.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt is the constitutional right of Ohio citizens to be free to decide whether they receive health care services recommended by medical professionals and widely accepted by the professional medical community as the appropriate treatment protocols for an appropriately diagnosed medical condition,\u201d she wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Edelstein\u2019s ruling placed heavy emphasis on the acceptance of such health care for children by physicians groups including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Endocrine Society and others.\u00a0<\/p>\n Case lands before Republican-dominated court<\/p>\n The case poses a major showdown on the Supreme Court\u2019s seven-member bench, comprised of six Republican justices and one Democrat. While the court\u2019s timing is impossible to predict, accepting the case Tuesday raises a possibility of the judges deciding a politically charged issue in the thick of an election year.\u00a0<\/p>\n The six Republicans on the court\u00a0voted<\/a>\u00a0to take up the case. Justice Jennifer Brunner, the lone Democrat whose term ends in 2026, voted against accepting it.\u00a0<\/p>\n Earlier this year, the court allowed the law to remain in effect while it goes through the court system.<\/p>\n