Brittany Stewart, right, delivers the opening statement for the plaintiffs at the beginning of a trial over North Dakota’s ban on gender-affirming care for minors. Jess Braverman, another attorney for the plaintiffs, is shown at left. (Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor)
(Mary Steurer – North Dakota Monitor) – A North Dakota teenager told a courtroom that gender-affirming care saved her life.
The state in 2023 made it a crime for health care professionals to provide the treatments to anyone below age 18. The ban contains an exemption for children who were receiving treatment before it went into effect.
“I am very grateful to be able to receive gender-affirming care, and I know there’s a lot of other children my age who are not able to receive it,” said the 16-year old, testifying under the pseudonym Pamela Roe. “I know very well that could have been me.”
Her testimony came as part of a lawsuit brought by North Dakota pediatric endocrinologist Luis Casas, who is challenging the ban on behalf of himself and his patients.
Casas alleges the law violates personal autonomy and equal protection rights under the state constitution.
Roe, her family and two other North Dakota families with transgender children were previously plaintiffs in the case alongside Casas, but South Central Judicial District Judge Jackson Lofgren ruled earlier this month that they don’t have standing to bring the challenge because the three kids fall under the ban’s exemption.
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