Clayton, Mo. - Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Missouri, and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP filed a petition seeking a temporary restraining order to block implementation of the Missouri Attorney General’s unprecedented and extreme restrictions on gender affirming care for trans people of all ages in the state. The Rule is scheduled to take effect on April 27.
The petition names Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who filed the emergency rule on April 13, seeking to impose severe restrictions on gender-affirming care for trans people of all ages. Gender-affirming care is not only evidence-based but is also supported by overwhelming scientific evidence, decades of clinical experience, and the medical consensus of major medical organizations in the United States.
“The Attorney General’s dangerous and unlawful twisting of Missouri’s consumer protection laws corrupt our health care system by inserting the government into the medical decisions of people and their doctors in order to play politics at the expense of life-saving medical care,” said Gillian Wilcox, Deputy Director for Litigation at the ACLU of Missouri. “This usurping of power will not only inflict harm on transgender adolescents, but its application will immediately jeopardize the health care of transgender adults throughout the state. This chicanery is the Attorney General’s attempt to legislate and harm transgender Missourians while ignoring evidence-based medical treatment for his own political gain. Every person has the right to express themselves, control their bodies, and seek the health care they need while doing so free of prejudice, discrimination, and violence.”
The lawsuit, Southampton Community Healthcare v. Bailey, was filed on behalf of Southampton Community Healthcare, Kelly Storck, Logan Casey, and the families of two transgender people.
"Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's emergency order is a baseless and discriminatory attempt to limit the healthcare options for transgender individuals, who already face several barriers accessing necessary and life-saving medical care,” said Southampton Community Healthcare's Dr. Samuel Tochtrop. “It's our privilege as Southampton Community Healthcare to fight this rule on behalf of transgender Missourians."
“This so-called emergency rule is an outrageous attack on basic healthcare for transgender people of all ages, and by imposing extreme restrictions on care for broad categories of Missouri’s transgender people, including adults, it represents a stunning expansion of efforts to target gender-affirming care.” said Nora Huppert, Lambda Legal Staff Attorney. “It relies on debunked and misleading claims and makes a mockery of the phrase ‘evidence-based medicine.’ This unprecedented attempt to use Missouri’s consumer protection law to go after necessary and often life-saving healthcare must be stopped. We are honored to stand alongside our courageous plaintiffs in challenging this dangerous and harmful policy. We will defend the rights of transgender people and ensure access to necessary, evidence-based medical care.”
“We applauded the courageous transgender Missourians, their families, and providers who came forward to share their stories to fight the Attorney General’s dangerous overreach,” said Katy Erker-Lynch, Executive Director of PROMO. “As the nation confronts an all-out attack on transgender rights and bodily autonomy, our gratitude goes to the skilled and compassionate attorneys taking on this case in the fight to protect human rights and bodily autonomy here in Missouri and across the country. We condemn the malicious and willful violence the Attorney General has committed against trans Missourians through his rulemaking and call for a moratorium on his relentless bigoted political posturing that put human lives at risk in his pursuit of power.”
Read the petition.
