Do No Harm Asks Supreme Court to Uphold Tennessee’s Ban on Biology-Denying Medical Interventions

On Tuesday, October 15, 2024, Do No Harm submitted an amicus (“friend of the court”) brief in United States v. Skrmetti asking the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Tennessee’s Senate Bill 1, which prohibits biology-denying transgender medical interventions on minors. These include puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures intended to make a child appear like the opposite sex.

The Department of Justice under President Joe Biden first sued Tennessee over the law in 2023, arguing it denied minors “medically necessary” care, and that the law violated the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Specifically, the DOJ argued that the law “permits all other minors to access the same procedures and treatments” for conditions unrelated to gender dysphoria, but prevents “transgender” children from accessing the medical interventions to alter their appearance in accordance with their gender self-identification.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit upheld Tennessee’s law, and the federal government appealed to the Supreme Court, which took up the case earlier this year.

Do No Harm’s amicus brief sets the record straight on the science underlying so-called “gender-affirming care,” and explains why the arguments against the ban are out of step with the weight of the evidence.

Do No Harm explains that:

• Several entities have conducted systematic reviews of the use of cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria, and all have concluded that the evidence underlying medical interventions for gender dysphoria in minors is weak; zero have come out the other way.
• There is no reliable evidence that puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones reduce the risk of suicide.
• The federal government is relying upon evidence that systematic reviews have concluded is unreliable
• The federal government does not understand what evidence-based medicine truly is

In addition, a brief submitted by 56 physicians explains how Senate Bill 1’s prohibition on dangerous and unsupported medical procedures “accords with every conceivable notion of medical ethics.” Do No Harm funded the preparation and submission of that brief.

The brief also lays out how puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones pose health risks to child patients.

Read the full text of Do No Harm’s amicus brief here.

Read the full text of the amicus brief submitted by 56 physicians here.