Attorney General Bailey Fights to Uphold States’ Right to Protect Children from Dangerous Mutilation Procedures

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey has joined a 24-state coalition urging the Ohio Supreme Court to defend a critical law that prohibits sex-change procedures for minors. The coalition filed an amicus brief in support of Ohio’s petition for review after a lower court wrongly invalidated the state’s law based on the controversial standards of a politically motivated advocacy group.

“This is about protecting our children,” said Attorney General Bailey. “The so-called medical standards being used to strike down state laws are nothing more than ideological manifestos. We will not allow activist interest groups to dictate policy that mutilates children under the false banner of healthcare. States have both the right and the duty to defend vulnerable children from irreversible harm.”

Ohio’s “Saving Ohio Adolescents from Experimentation Act” prohibits the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and sex-change surgeries on minors. In passing this law, the Ohio General Assembly rightfully rejected the radical “treatment” model pushed by WPATH, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, a group exposed in recent litigation for prioritizing political outcomes over medical evidence. Despite that, the Ohio Court of Appeals ruled that the legislature could not depart from WPATH’s unscientific guidelines. That ruling is not only dangerous, it is unconstitutional.

Attorney General Bailey and the coalition urge the Ohio Supreme Court to take up the case and reverse the lower Court’s decision. If left standing, the ruling would set a troubling precedent that strips legislatures of their authority to regulate medicine and forces states to defer to unelected, ideologically driven organizations.

“This fight is about who governs, elected representatives of the people, or activist groups that push unproven and dangerous treatments,” said Attorney General Bailey. “We are taking this stand to protect children, defend parental rights, and uphold the sovereignty of states to legislate for the public good.”

The coalition brief reveals that WPATH’s guidelines were developed not through unbiased scientific research but under pressure from political activists and movement lawyers. According to evidence cited in the brief, WPATH deliberately avoided evidence-based reviews because “evidence reveals little or no support” for their preferred procedures. These procedures, puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and surgeries that sterilize and disfigure healthy bodies have lifelong consequences and no proven long-term benefit for children.

As stated in the coalition’s brief, “WPATH’s guidelines have been rated among the lowest in quality… but are embedded in nearly all aspects of healthcare in the United States. The people of Ohio were right to reject these ‘standards.’ The Court should accept jurisdiction and reverse.”

Attorney General Bailey concluded, “Our goal is simple: to protect children. We will continue to use every legal tool available to stop irreversible procedures that mutilate young bodies and to ensure that parents and policymakers, not political ideologues, determine what is in the best interest of our children.”

In addition to Missouri, the following states joined the brief: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, and West Virginia.

The full brief can be read here.