An Ohio appeals court overturned the state’s prohibition on gender-transition drugs for minors, reversing a lower-court decision ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court’s highly anticipated ruling on a similar law in Tennessee.
The state’s 10th District Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday in a 3-0 decision that the 2024 law violates the state constitution by impeding access to health care and parents’ “fundamental liberty interest in directing the care of their children.”
“While some parents may decline to permit their minor children to receive this type of care — as is their right — and members of the Ohio legislature may personally disagree with providing this type of care to minors, it 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,” the 79-page opinion by Judge Carly Edelstein said.
The appellate court sent the case back to the trial court for a permanent injunction on portions of House Bill 68, which became law in January 2024 after the state legislature overrode a veto by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.
The bill also barred males from female sports and prohibited gender-transition surgeries for minors, but the ruling on the lawsuit brought by the families of two adolescents only applies to the section of the law barring puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which represents the two anonymous families, cheered the decision as a “critical victory for transgender youth and their families across Ohio.”
“We are gratified by the Court’s decision, which soundly rejects this interference of politicians with Ohioans’ bodily autonomy,” said ACLU Legal Director Freda Levenson.
“Although this litigation will likely not end here, we remain fervently committed to preventing this egregious bill from ever again taking effect,” she said.
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, a Republican, vowed Tuesday to appeal the ruling.
“This is a no brainer – we are appealing that decision and will seek an immediate stay. There is no way I’ll stop fighting to protect these unprotected children,” Mr. Yost said in a statement.
Twenty-five states have passed laws or policies barring gender-transition drugs and surgeries for minors, although some of those have been temporarily blocked pending the outcome of litigation.
“Ohio’s elected representatives properly passed legislation protecting children from irreversible chemical sex change procedures, and the trial court upheld the law,” Mr. Yost said. “But now the 10th district court of appeals has just greenlighted these permanent medical interventions against minors.”
Judge Edelstein, a Democrat who was elected to the appellate court in 2022, previously worked in the Ohio Public Defender’s office and chaired the Columbus Bar Association’s LGBT Bar Committee, according to her biography.
The appellate court’s decision comes with the U.S. Supreme Court expected to rule in June on U.S. v. Skrmetti, a legal challenge brought by the Biden administration and Tennessee families against the state law barring gender-transition drugs and surgeries for minors.
Deputy Solicitor General Curtis Gannon notified the court last month that the federal government has switched sides in the case under President Trump, but nonetheless urged the court to issue a decision on the issue.
In January, Mr. Trump signed an executive order threatening to withhold federal funding to institutions that provide gender-transition medical treatment to those under 19, an order temporarily blocked by a federal judge earlier this month.
The Trump administration also dropped Tuesday the federal government’s involvement in a case challenging Alabama’s ban on gender-transition drugs and surgeries for minors. The move doesn’t end the case though, because other parties are challenging the Alabama law.
