U.S. Supreme Court Affirms Missouri’s Right to Protect Children from Gender Mutilation

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Today, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced that, six months after Missouri became the first state to successfully defend one of these laws, the United States Supreme Court handed down a major victory to Missouri and other states seeking to protect children from irreversible gender transition procedures. In United States v. Skrmetti, the Supreme Court followed Missouri’s victory and allowed Tennessee’s law banning radical procedures for minors to stand, affirming that states, not unelected judges, have the authority to determine what medical treatments are appropriate for children.

“My office has been on the front lines of the fight to stop the mutilation of children in the name of radical gender ideology,” said Attorney General Bailey. “Missouri was the first state in the nation to win on this issue, and the Supreme Court’s decision affirms what we’ve said all along: states have both the right and the duty to protect children from these irreversible and experimental procedures.”

Missouri has been a national trailblazer in this fight. Attorney General Bailey launched an investigation in 2023 into the Washington University Pediatric Transgender Center in St. Louis after a whistleblower came forward with allegations that the center used experimental drugs on children, distributed puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones without individualized assessment, and bullied parents into “consenting” to giving their children life-altering drugs.

In an affidavit, the whistleblower said that the actions taken by the Center had led children to attempt suicide and that the Center never discontinued prescribing cross-sex hormones, no matter how much those drugs were harming the child. The whistleblower has also provided documentary evidence that the Center has been unlawfully billing state taxpayers to fund these actions. The investigation revealed practices so alarming that the clinic was forced to shut down all gender transition services for minors in September 2023, just days after Attorney General Bailey successfully defended Missouri’s first-in-the-nation law banning child sex-change procedures at trial.

Missouri has also led a 19-state amicus brief in the Skrmetti case, urging the Supreme Court to uphold states’ authority to prohibit these harmful practices. The brief stated, “[t]he Constitution does not strip States of their authority to protect children from experimental medical procedures.” The Court’s decision to let the Sixth Circuit’s ruling stand effectively adopts this reasoning. It affirms that states are not constitutionally required to permit these irreversible interventions and that ultimately, states, rather than Courts, should decide what treatments are available to minors.

“This is a victory not just for Missouri, but for every state fighting to shield children from irreversible harm disguised as medical care,” concluded Attorney General Bailey. “We are proud that the Supreme Court has now adopted the same position we’ve led on from day one: children deserve protection, not permanent damage. As a father and as Attorney General, I will not rest until every entity harming kids is shut down, every bad actor is held accountable, and Missouri remains the safest state in the nation for children.”

Missouri will continue to lead the nation in protecting children, holding institutions accountable, and standing against the politicization of medicine