Federal judges blocked portions of bans on gender-affirming care for transgender youth in Kentucky and Tennessee on Wednesday.
In separate cases in both states, judges blocked parts of laws that would have prevented transgender youth from accessing hormone therapy and puberty blockers.
The plaintiffs in the Kentucky case were seven transgender minors and their parents. They sued the state officials who oversaw the bans on puberty blockers and hormones, saying the bans would have violated their rights and prevented parents from seeking medical care for their children.
Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, a Republican, said the judge's decision in that case "tramples the right" of lawmakers to set policy. He said the attorney general's office would keep fighting to enact the law, which was scheduled to go into effect on Thursday.
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The ruling applies to the state's $38 billion Medicaid program, and affects the approximately 9,000 people who are transgender and enrolled in it.
Tennessee's law was scheduled to take effect July 1. That law would have phased out medical treatments that were already underway and instituted $25,000 penalties for providers who violated its rules.
At least 20 states nationwide now have some level of ban on such gender-affirming care. North Carolina lawmakers on Wednesday finalized a Republican-led bill that would prohibit certain gender-affirming care for minors, and bar state funds from going toward the treatments. Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper is expected to veto the measure, though the North Carolina statehouse has veto-proof Republican majorities.
