Citing the state’s long history of regulating medicine, including banning certain “medical practices,” and protecting the welfare of minors, a court ruling in North Dakota has endorsed a state law that bans the mutilation of children.
That would be through procedures pushed by transgender advocates.
Mat Staver, of Liberty Counsel, a group active in the fight against transgender ideology, said, “North Dakota’s law recognizes biological reality that a person cannot change their sex and protects children from irreversibly mutilating procedures. There is no fundamental right to barbaric medical procedures, and the North Dakota Supreme Court rightly ruled the state has the power to protect children from harm.
“Bans on medical mutilation are constitutional and all state legislatures should enact similar laws to protect children,” he said.
The state Supreme Court recently upheld the state’s ban on puberty blockers, hormones, and “mutilating gender surgeries,” in a unanimous vote.
In T.D. v. Wrigley, the court ruled 5-0 that it is not the court’s role to resolve the medical debate around the safety and effectiveness of gender procedures, nor should it create a fundamental right to those procedures.
The state’s HB 1254 from 2023 makes it a felony to perform mutilating gender surgeries on children and a misdemeanor to prescribe them puberty blockers and hormone therapy for treating gender confusion.
The state was sued by a pediatric endocrinologist and several families with gender-confused children, claiming the minors have a right to “this particular medical treatment.”
Justice Douglas Bahr delivered the decision, which was founded in the meaning of “inalienable rights” as understood in 1889 when North Dakota achieved statehood and its constitution was adopted.
Times, he said, “have changed,” but the meaning of the state Constitution has not.
He said the requirement is for judges to apply the constitution as understood by the people who adopted it.
Since statehood, he explained, lawmakers have regulated medicine, including banning some things to protect minors.
The North Dakota Supreme Court has unanimously upheld the state’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors after finding the ban constitutional.
“Minors do not have a fundamental right to a particular course of medical treatment. The Act does not classify on the basis of sex or… pic.twitter.com/HnfoZlWRlg
— Judicial Hub (@judicialhub) September 21, 2026
The North Dakota Supreme Court unanimously upheld the state’s 2023 ban on sex-change surgeries and puberty blockers for gender-dysphoric minors. #NorthDakota #TransMinors #Skrmetti #ChildProtection #ChristianPost
🔗 https://t.co/CcleqyS27o https://t.co/852FLgl8TH pic.twitter.com/xz9tUkPiwv— The Christian Post (@ChristianPost) September 21, 2026
He wrote that defining a constitutional right around a “novel” medical diagnosis or procedure “forecloses” that right because it is not deeply rooted in history and tradition, Liberty Counsel confirmed.
The decision continued, “This court does not create fundamental rights. When asked to acknowledge a fundamental right, we carefully analyze the text and history of [the constitution] to avoid usurping the authority our constitution ‘entrusts to the people’s elected representatives.’”
The result is a conclusion that the law is a legitimate government response to the “potential serious and irreversible effects” of these procedures on minors.
And the ruling pointed out it is consistent with the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent Skrmetti decision that upheld a similar law in Tennessee.
