Missouri Judge Issues Temporary Restraining Order Blocking Rule Restricting Access to Gender-Affirming Treatments

A Missouri judge on Monday issued a temporary restraining order blocking a rule that would require adults and children to undergo more than a year of therapy and fulfill other requirements before they could receive gender-affirming treatments such as puberty blockers, hormones and surgery.

St. Louis County Circuit Judge Ellen Ribaudo issued the order, which bars enforcement of Republican Attorney General Andrew Bailey’s emergency rule until May 15 unless she extends it. In her ruling, Ribaudo wrote that those suing to block the rule would “be subjected to immediate and irreparable loss, damage or injury if the Attorney General is permitted to enforce the Emergency Rule, and its broad, sweeping provisions were allowed to take effect.”

The rule, which was issued in February, would have required adults to receive a mental health assessment and obtain a signed informed consent form from a mental health professional before they could receive gender-affirming treatments. It would also have required minors to receive a mental health assessment and obtain written consent from both parents before they could receive gender-affirming treatments.

The lawsuit challenging the rule was filed by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri and the Transgender Law Center on behalf of two transgender Missourians and the St. Louis Effort for AIDS. The lawsuit argued that the rule would have violated the Missouri Constitution by infringing on the rights of transgender people to access medical care and to make decisions about their own bodies.

The temporary restraining order is a victory for transgender rights advocates in Missouri, who have long argued that the rule was unconstitutional and would have had a devastating impact on the transgender community. The case will now move forward in the courts, and a final ruling on the rule is expected in the coming weeks.