Legal Fight Brews Over Ban on Medical Care for Transgender Kids (Bloomberg Law)
The Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution requires states to treat individuals equally under the law. But Arkansas’s law bans providers from prescribing puberty blockers, which LGBTQ advocates say give children, parents, and their doctors more time to assess best treatment options.
Puberty blockers are used in all sorts of children who are experiencing precocious puberty, or puberty too soon, said Alexander Chen, founding director of Harvard Law School LGBTQ+ Advocacy Clinic.
“This law says it’s so bad for transgender kids to get puberty blockers that doctors have to lose their licenses for it, but it doesn’t say anything about the the use of puberty blockers for cisgender children to treat precocious puberty,” he said.