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The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday granted Idaho’s request to partially stay a lower court injunction that previously prohibited the state from enforcing its law criminalizing child sterilization and mutilation.
The Vulnerable Child Protection Act, passed by the Idaho legislature and signed into law in 2023, ensures those who participate in the physical and chemical “transing” of a minor will face a felony charge and a maximum of 10 years behind bars for inflicting irreversible damage on children in the name of radical gender ideology.
“These medical and surgical interventions can cause irreversible physical alterations; and some render the patient sterile or with lifelong sexual dysfunction, while others mutilate healthy body organs,” the legislation’s statement of purpose declares.
A federal district court in the state halted enforcement of the law shortly before its enactment on Jan. 1, 2024. Clinton-appointed Judge B. Lynn Winmill claimed in his universal injunction that cross-sex hormones and other procedures falsely labeled as “gender-affirming care” are “safe, effective, and medically necessary for some adolescents.” Studies suggest otherwise.
“Among other things, this meant Idaho could not enforce its prohibition against surgeries to remove or alter children’s genitals, even though no party before the court had sought access to those surgeries or demonstrated that Idaho’s prohibition of them offended federal law,” Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch noted in his concurrence. “The court’s order promised to suspend Idaho’s law indefinitely, too, as this litigation (like many today) may take years to reach
