Ohio Supreme Court to consider ban on gender-affirming care for minors 

This piece originally appeared in Signal Ohio on 7/22/25 and appears here with permission

by Jake Zuckerman

The Ohio Supreme Court voted Tuesday to take up a challenge to a state law that prohibits doctors from providing puberty blocking drugs or cross-sex hormones to transgender minors. 

At issue is a law that Statehouse Republicans passed in 2024 overriding the veto of Gov. Mike DeWine, also a Republican. It authorizes state officials to seek professional discipline of doctors who provide such care to minors and prohibits mental health professionals from diagnosing or treating minors for gender-related conditions without screening for other co-morbidities, abuse and trauma. 

The lawsuit was brought by two transgender children receiving gender affirming health care, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and other private lawyers. 

A split panel on the Columbus-based 10th District Court of Appeals in April deemed the law unconstitutional. Judge Carly Edelstein found the law violated the children’s rights under the Ohio Constitution to due process and equal protection under the law, given that non-transgender children can still receive puberty blockers for other endocrine disorders. 

She also found the law violated the Health Care Freedom constitutional amendment approved by voters amid the backlash to the Affordable Care Act under President Barack Obama. 

“It is the constitutional right of Ohio citizens to be free to decide whether they receive health care services recommended by medical professionals and widely accepted by the professional medical community as the appropriate treatment protocols for an appropriately diagnosed medical condition,” she wrote. 

Edelstein’s ruling placed heavy emphasis on the acceptance of such health care for children by physicians groups including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Endocrine Society and others. 

Case lands before Republican-dominated court

The case poses a major showdown on the Supreme Court’s seven-member bench, comprised of six Republican justices and one Democrat. While the court’s timing is impossible to predict, accepting the case Tuesday raises a possibility of the judges deciding a politically charged issue in the thick of an election year. 

The six Republicans on the court voted to take up the case. Justice Jennifer Brunner, the lone Democrat whose term ends in 2026, voted against accepting it. 

Earlier this year, the court allowed the law to remain in effect while it goes through the court system.

Ohio is one of 27 states that have prohibited or restricted access to transgender care for minors since 2021, in what has become a central policy focus for GOP-led states, according to a count from KFF, a health policy analysis group. While it’s not the subject of the present lawsuit, the Ohio law in question also prohibited transgender children from participating in women’s sports in K-12 schools or colleges. 🔥