Judge Rules in Favor of North Dakota’s Ban on Transgender Care for Minors

Judge Jackson Lofgren. (Mary Steurer/North Dakota Monitor)

(North Dakota Monitor) – A judge has upheld a North Dakota law that bans gender-affirming care for minors, which some families say has forced them to seek health care out of state.

South Central District Court Judge Jackson Lofgren wrote in an order that the 2023 law that makes it a crime to prescribe puberty blockers and other treatments to adolescents does not violate the state constitution.

Lofgren presided over a seven-day court trial that ended in February and included testimony from doctors and transgender teens and their parents.

In his 85-page order, Lofgren writes that there is “legitimate ongoing debate regarding the safety and effectiveness” of prescribing gender-affirming treatments like puberty blockers or hormone therapy to a minor. He adds that the evidence at trial shows a valid concern about whether adolescents have the capacity to understand the long-term risks of the medications.