Douglas County District Judge Carl Folsom has issued a temporary injunction officially blocking the state of Kansas from enforcing a law that bans gender-affirming medical care for minors. In the ruling, the judge determined that a lawsuit claiming the statute violates parental rights has a high likelihood of success, meaning the law cannot be enforced while the legal challenge moves forward. However, because the plaintiffs did not include a challenge to surgical restrictions in their lawsuit, and since such surgeries are rarely performed on minors, the injunction does not apply to the provision restricting surgeries.
The controversial law was passed by the Kansas Legislature in 2025, when lawmakers voted to override a veto by Democratic Governor Laura Kelly. The statute, known as the "Help Not Harm Act," criminalizes the provision of gender-affirming care, restricts the use of state funds for such treatments, and imposes harsh penalties on healthcare providers. It blocks minors' access to puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and transition-related surgeries, and has been decried as one of the most expansive bans on transgender healthcare in the country. Judge Folsom noted in his ruling that the law likely infringes on the fundamental rights of parents to make decisions about their children’s healthcare, stating that Section 1 of the Kansas Bill of Rights protects the fundamental right of parents to the care, custody, and control of their children, which includes the right to consent to medical care that their children need, desire, and which is recommended by a clinician.
The ruling has drawn sharp reactions from both sides in Kansas. State Attorney General Kris Kobach publicly opposed the decision and has already filed an appeal, calling the order a "stark example of judicial activism" and accusing the judge of inventing a new constitutional right for parents out of whole cloth despite the state constitution saying nothing about it. Conversely, Harper Seldin, a senior staff attorney for the ACLU of Kansas, praised the injunction, stating it brings enormous relief to the families of transgender youth across the state and reaffirming the principle that any decision about medical care should remain strictly between families and their doctors.
North American Editorial Office: Robin