SW News: A Tennessee law prohibiting the provision of gender-affirming care to minors has been upheld by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in the United States.

A district court had previously issued an injunction blocking the state’s enforcement of the ban on gender-affirming treatments. Nearly a week after the federal district judge temporarily blocked the law, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals allowed Tennessee's restriction on gender-affirming care for children to go into effect on Saturday. The court's decision was split 2-1. With this ruling, a federal court for the first time approved the implementation of a lower court-blocked ban on gender-affirming care for minors.

The Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti appealed to the court hours after the preliminary injunction was granted, and the Sixth Circuit concurred with him. “The case is far from over, but this is a big win. The court of appeals lifted the injunction, meaning the law can be fully enforced, and recognized that Tennessee is likely to win the constitutional argument and the case,” Skrmetti tweeted on Saturday. The law, which was passed in March, will now go into force fully and immediately.

The decision comes after a number of Republican states passed laws that severely restricted or prohibited gender-affirming medical care for minors. Such laws have been passed by 19 states in total, the majority of them this year. In five states, giving minors gender-affirming care is a felony.

Gender-affirming care includes surgical procedures as well as nonsurgical options like mental health services, hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and reproductive counseling. These therapies may involve years-long, gradual processes, and they might not even start until parents and medical professionals give their consent.

The law's text clearly states that medical professionals in Tennessee are not allowed to carry out procedures that "enable a minor to identify with, or live as, a purported identity inconsistent with the minor's sex" or "treat purported discomfort or distress from discordance between the minor's sex and asserted identity."