Appeals court allows Arkansas to enforce gender-affirming care ban

[Lori Dee]

Appeals court allows Arkansas to enforce gender-affirming care ban
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The Hill - Brooke Migdon
08/12/25 5:11 PM ET

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that Arkansas can enforce its 2021 ban on gender-affirming care for minors, reversing a lower court decision that struck down the first-in-the-nation law as unconstitutional and following a June Supreme Court decision.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Tuesday that a federal district court had erred in striking down Arkansas's (SAFE) Act in 2023. U.S. District Judge Jay Moody ruled at the time that the law, adopted by the state Legislature in 2021 ... discriminates against transgender people and poses "immediate and irreparable harm" to trans youth.

In its decision, the 8th Circuit said Moody's ruling conflicts with the Supreme Court's decision in U.S. v. Skrmetti, which found that a similar law banning gender-affirming care for minors in Tennessee does not discriminate on the basis of sex.

Twenty-seven states have banned the use of certain prescription medications and rare surgeries to treat gender dysphoria in minors since Arkansas passed its first-in-the-nation prohibition in 2021. In July, Puerto Rico became the first U.S. territory to ban gender-affirming care for youth, restricting treatment for anyone younger than 21, the island's age of majority.

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