Today, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey issued an order terminating his anti-transgender emergency rule challenged in Southampton Community Healthcare v. Bailey, the lawsuit filed by Lambda Legal, ACLU of Missouri and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP. Bailey issued the emergency rule on April 13, seeking to impose severe restrictions on transgender people of all ages seeking gender-affirming care. Attorney General Bailey filed the request to terminate the rule after the court issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of the rule in the lawsuit.
“While the immediate threat and unprecedented reach of the Attorney General’s emergency rule will end, we are fully aware that the Missouri Legislature continues to train its sights on Missouri’s trans community,” said Nora Huppert, Staff Attorney at Lambda Legal. “SB 49 would deny adolescent transgender Missourians access to evidence-based treatment supported by the overwhelming medical consensus. The fight against these dangerous and unprecedented attacks is far from over.”
Judge Ellen H. Ribaudo of the 21st Judicial Circuit had previously granted a temporary restraining order against the implementation of the attorney general’s extreme and unprecedented restrictions on gender-affirming care for trans people of all ages. Meanwhile, on May 10, the Missouri legislature passed SB 49, which would prevent transgender adolescents from having access to evidence-based, medically necessary healthcare. The bill would also ban access to gender-affirming health care under Medicaid and place restrictions on gender-affirming care in state prisons.
The legal advocates filed the lawsuit on behalf of Southampton Community Healthcare, Kelly Storck, Logan Casey, and the families of two transgender adolescents. Read more about the case Southampton Community Healthcare v. Bailey.