North Dakota Judge Upholds Law Protecting Gender-Confused Kids from Transgender Drugs and Mutilation
Ashley Sadler : Nov 17, 2023
LifeSiteNews.com
District Judge Jackson Lofgren on Monday rejected a request to temporarily block an April law that bans the transgender mutilation of minors.
(Bismarck, ND) — [LifeSiteNews.com] North Dakota can continue enforcing its law protecting doctors from mutilating gender-confused children with drugs or surgeries while a challenge works its way through the courts, a federal judge decided Monday. (Image: Pixabay)
South Central District Judge Jackson Lofgren upheld the protections, rejecting a request to temporarily block an April law signed by Gov. Doug Burgum that bans the transgender mutilation of minors.
Lawyers made the request in an effort to stall enforcement of the law while a lawsuit filed by a doctor who performs transgender surgeries and three sets of parents of gender-confused children works its way through the courts. The plaintiffs filed their lawsuit against North Dakota Attorney General Drew Wrigley in September.
Judge Lofgren said the physician and parents had failed to establish that the new legal protections ran afoul of the Constitution "beyond a reasonable doubt," The Daily Wire noted. He also pointed out that gender-confused people are not a "protected class."
READ: North Dakota bans ‘transgender' males from girls' bathrooms
"The plaintiffs argue the challenged statutes are subject to strict scrutiny," the judge wrote in his decision. "However, this heightened scrutiny hinges upon inclusion in a protected class not previously recognized by the North Dakota Supreme Court or a new application of state constitutional principles."
Lofgren explained that his decision allows the continued enforcement of the law while the legal case progresses. The judge also suggested the plaintiffs had damaged their case by filing in September, months after the law was signed, Valley News Live reported.
The law in question, House Bill 1254, makes it a class B felony for any healthcare provider to perform surgery "for the purpose of changing or affirming the minor's perception of the minor's sex" and a misdemeanor to prescribe drugs for that purpose.
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