Legal advocates urged the Missouri Supreme Court today to reverse a circuit court ruling upholding enforcement of Senate Bill 49, Missouri’s discriminatory law that bars transgender adolescents from receiving gender-affirming medical care and prohibits Medicaid coverage for gender-affirming medical care for transgender people of any age. The law penalizes health care professionals who provide such care to minors with the loss of their medical licenses.
Attorneys from Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Missouri, and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner LLP argued that SB 49 bans medically necessary treatments that remain available to non-transgender individuals and interferes with fundamental rights to medical decision-making.
“Missouri’s bans violate fundamental constitutional rights that protect all Missourians,” said Nora Huppert, Senior Attorney at Lambda Legal. “This law invades the private relationship between patients, their families, and their doctors, denying transgender people access to safe and effective medical care. The Missouri Constitution protects the autonomy and equal rights and opportunity for all people, and this law falls short of those principles.”
“Missouri’s discriminatory ban singles out and denies transgender people access to lifesaving medical care in violation of their constitutional rights,” said Gillian Wilcox, Director of Litigation at the ACLU of Missouri. “In addition to ignoring the consensus of established medical associations and evidence-based findings, this law strips parents and families from making private decisions with their doctors and gives the government the final say in who will receive care and what type of treatments.”
“Taking away a parent’s right to get their child the health care they need, when they need it, is wrong, especially when MO Healthnet families with trans kids, among the most vulnerable in the state, are the target,” said Brian K. Bond, CEO of PFLAG National. PFLAG National and our members with trans kids will continue to fight to ensure every transgender person has the freedom to thrive.”
“SB 49 prevents GLMA members and other health professionals from doing their jobs: providing evidence-based, patient-centered care,” said Alex Sheldon, Executive Director of GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality. “This law punishes providers for following medical science and betrays the trust at the heart of the provider–patient relationship. We urge the Missouri Supreme Court to right this wrong and restore the ability of clinicians to care for their patients without political interference.”
On July 25, 2023, legal advocates filed E.N. v. Kehoe in Cole County Circuit Court to block the implementation of SB 49, on behalf of three families of transgender young people, medical providers, and the organizations PFLAG National and GLMA: Health Professionals Advancing LGBTQ+ Equality.
In August 2023, the Court denied the motion for a preliminary injunction and allowed the ban to take effect on August 28, 2023.
At the conclusion of a two-week trial in October 2024, the Court refused to halt enforcement of SB 49. The appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court was filed on January 16, 2025.
Read more about the case here: https://lambdalegal.org/case/en-v-kehoe/