Supreme Court Got It Right: Protect Kids From Medical Experiments

The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in United States v. Skrmetti, released on Wednesday, delivered a welcome rebuke of the greatest medical scandal of our time.

In a landmark victory for children’s health and science-based medicine, the Court upheld a Tennessee law protecting minors from harmful gender experiments. Importantly, the decision will help protect 26 similar state laws.

The Tennessee law prohibits health care providers from administering puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones or performing surgeries on children who experience discomfort with their sex. It passed in 2023 with bipartisan support.

The American Civil Liberties Union sued the state, and the Biden administration joined in, asking the Court to create a “constitutional right” to give children experimental drugs and surgeries that turn them into life-long medical patients. Doing so would have forced states to base their laws on ideology, not evidence—to the immense detriment of countless children.

The Supreme Court’s rejection of that request is a refreshing—and desperately needed—return to sanity. As Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, “In politically contentious debates over matters shrouded in scientific uncertainty, courts should not assume that self-described experts are correct.”

Thanks to states like Tennessee, common sense has started to return to American policy on how best to help kids struggling with confusion about their gender or discomfort with their bodies.

The Supreme Court’s ruling makes clear that states are free to “follow the science,” as the United Kingdom and other European countries have, in identifying safe and effective ways to help kids who experience distress over their sex. The U.S. Health and Human Services’ (HHS) recent report on gender-transition procedures—which found the quality of evidence in favor of such procedures to be “very low”—should lead to the closure of every gender clinic in America. And doctors who rush families toward these experiments on kids should be subject to lawsuits for damages.

The HHS report follows the bombshell Cass Review, from an expert commissioned by England’s National Health Service, to evaluate gender-transition medical procedures. The latter found “no good evidence” to support the use of puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones on children. On the contrary, children need counseling, compassion, and comprehensive mental and physical care, not experimental procedures that alter their bodies.

Consider the story of Clementine Breen. Clementine was sexually abused as a child, resulting in anxiety, depression, and a fear of puberty. But instead of getting the help she needed, her counselor told her the reason she was distressed was that she was really a boy.

At age 12, Clementine had an appointment at the largest gender clinic in the country. After 30 minutes, the preteen was prescribed puberty blockers. Her breasts were removed at age 14.

At 17, Clementine’s doctor urged her to get a hysterectomy, saying that if she didn’t, she’d be at a higher risk for suicide. Despite following the doctor’s advice, she eventually tried to take her own life anyway.

Not once was Clementine asked about her history of abuse. Not once was she warned about the long-term health problems she would face from the medical interventions she was undergoing. She’s now suing for medical malpractice.

Clementine sure could have used doctors who listened to her, rather than push her down the path of so-called gender-affirming “care.” She now bears the scars on her body. Every doctor who has pushed junk science on vulnerable kids should be held responsible.

These experiments carry a tragic human toll. As the Supreme Court noted in Skrmetti, Tennessee found that administering puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors with gender dysphoria “can lead to the minor becoming irreversibly sterile, having increased risk of disease and illness, or suffering from adverse and sometimes fatal psychological consequences.”

Clementine’s story is a preventable tragedy. Up to 88 percent of young kids struggling with gender dysphoria will naturally come to peace with their bodies. There is a growing consensus around the world that adolescents experiencing gender dysphoria need love and an opportunity to talk through their struggles and feelings.

That’s the kind of counseling many providers, like Kaley Chiles, would like to offer. But some states—including Colorado, where Kaley lives—won’t let them. These states deprive children of caring and compassionate conversations with a counselor who helps them pursue the goals they desire.

My organization, Alliance Defending Freedom, asked the Supreme Court to hear Kaley’s case, and it agreed. This fall, the nation’s High Court will have another opportunity to further protect children from being trapped on a conveyor belt toward irreversible damage.

The ideology behind the countless gender experiments on children is being exposed as a lie. Lawsuits like Clementine’s, the growing body of scientific evidence from around the world, the dozens of states like Tennessee that are defending children, and now the Supreme Court’s ruling in Skrmetti, are bringing us closer to a day when children are finally protected from this insidious ideology.

Kristen Waggoner is CEO and president of Alliance Defending Freedom. Follow Kristen on X @KristenWaggoner or follow ADF @ADFLegal.

The views expressed in this article are the writer’s own.