A 2023 Idaho law criminalizing gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth is being challenged in federal court by two transgender adolescents and their families. HB 71, signed into law by Idaho Governor Brad Little in May 2023, prohibits gender-affirming medical care that is widely accepted to treat gender dysphoria, helping alleviate the distress of gender dysphoria and significantly improving patients’ mental health and well-being. Such treatment is supported by leading medical experts and all major U.S. medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Lindsay is a college student at Boise State University. She wants to run on the track team so she can form friendships with other girls. A new law in Idaho would ban her from doing so because she is transgender.

This lawsuit challenged an Idaho statute that purports to criminalize the use of any public funds to “promote abortion” or “counsel in favor of abortion.” We argued that the law violates the First Amendment by restricting academic speech about abortion by faculty at Idaho’s public universities, and that the law is unconstitutionally vague.

On April 5, a group of health care providers and advocates sued to stop Idaho Attorney General Labrador from applying a legal opinion in which he claims that health care providers cannot refer patients out of state for abortion care under Idaho law. Under the opinion, any assistance from a health care provider — including offering information about other states’ abortion providers and abortion funds — could be a violation of Idaho’s abortion ban, threatening health care licenses or even criminal prosecution. This interpretation goes far beyond Idaho’s law and is an extreme attempt to prevent health care providers from giving information to patients and to prevent Idahoans from accessing legal health care in another state.