By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX — The decision Monday by the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the question of whether states can ban transgender medical care for minors could have an impact on Arizona.

A 2022 Arizona law bans at least part of what the high court will take up next session: gender reassignment surgery on those younger than 18. That is part of the Tennessee law that is being challenged by the Biden administration and trans youths in that state as a violation of constitutional equal protection rights as well as parental rights to make decisions for their own children.

If the justices conclude that statute is unconstitutional, the Arizona law will go away.

But the Tennessee law the justices will review has something that doesn’t exist in Arizona: a ban on hormonal treatments and other non-surgical transition aid. That means minors here will be able to continue to get that kind of medical care regardless of what the Supreme Court rules.

It wasn’t the way Senate President Warren Petersen wanted the Arizona law to read. The Gilbert Republican actually tried to get colleagues to adopt a law very similar to Tennessee.

His original proposal, dubbed the “Arizona Children Deserve Help Not Harm Act,’’ would have made it illegal for a doctor or other health care professional from providing gender transition procedures to any individual younger than 18. That included not just surgery but also puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones “or other mechanisms to promote the development of feminizing or masculinizing features in the opposite biological sex ... performed for the purpose of assisting an individual with gender transition.”

It did contain exceptions, including those born with chromosomal irregularities or lacks sex steroid hormone production.

But Petersen found himself unable to line up the votes as Republican Sen. Tyler Pace aligned with Democrats to keep the bill from getting out of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services.

Pace, a Mesa Republican who is no longer in the Legislature, said at the time he favored what Petersen proposed. But he said that changed after hearing comments from children and their parents who “are using these avenues of medical treatment to save lives.”

“I don’t want my vote to stop those great things,” he said.

In the end, the bill that got out of the Senate — and eventually was adopted by the House — was the one Pace said he could support.

It bans “irreversible gender reassignment surgery” to any individual younger than 18. And it does include the same exceptions that were in Petersen’s original bill.

In deciding to sign the legislation, then-Gov. Doug Ducey specifically pointed out the measure does not prohibit doctors from providing puberty-blocking hormones or any other hormone therapy to minors.

“SB 1138 delays any irreversible gender reassignment surgery until the age of 18,” Ducey explained.

“The reason is simple and common sense,” he continued. “This is a decision that will dramatically affect the rest of an individuals’ life, including the ability of that individual to become a biological parent later in life.”

Ducey said there’s nothing wrong with providing different standards between what adults can do with their bodies versus what can happen with children, even in cases where the parents agree.

“Throughout law, children are protected from making irreversible decisions, including buying certain products or participating in activities that can have lifelong health implications,” he said. “These decisions should be made when an individual reaches adulthood.”

The governor also said many doctors who perform these procedures have concluded it is not “within the standards of care” to do so on children.

The day Ducey signed the ban on transgender surgery on minors was the same day he inked his approval to a separate law that spells out that anyone not born female cannot participate in girls’ interscholastic or intramural sports.
Ducey denied that it was denying any opportunity to transgender girls, saying they remain free to compete on coed teams.

“It’s a way where all can participate,” the governor said. “But those that are in competitive environments can have a level playing field.”

A federal judge already has ruled that two transgender girls are allowed to participate in girls’ sports, though she has not struck down the entire statute. State schools chief Tom Horne and GOP legislative leaders are appealing that decision.