( The Hill ) — An Indiana law banning gender-affirming care for minors will remain in effect, a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday.
A three-judge panel on the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Indiana to block the law, which prohibits health care providers from administering gender-affirming medical care to transgender children and teens under 18. A federal appeals court in February lifted a temporary injunction that had stopped the law from taking effect, overturning a lower court decision.
Indiana’s Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb signed the law, Senate Bill 480, last spring, one day after he called the measure “clear as mud.”
In a lawsuit filed the same day on behalf of four transgender children and their families, the ACLU of Indiana argued that the law violates the U.S. Constitution and “is vast government overreach.”
“This law takes away critical health care from a group of Hoosiers, leaving them and their parents in dire circumstances,” the group wrote in its lawsuit .