JEFFERSON CITY – Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey celebrated a major legal victory after a two-week trial defending the state’s law prohibiting gender transition procedures for minors.
The ruling makes Missouri the first state in the nation to successfully uphold such a law at the trial court level, just days before the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear a similar case.
"The Court has left Missouri’s law banning child mutilation in place, a resounding victory for our children," Bailey said in a provided statement. "I’m extremely proud of the thousands of hours my office put in to shine a light on the lack of evidence supporting these irreversible procedures."
Bailey noted that he would continue to fight to keep children safe in the state.
"We will never stop fighting to ensure Missouri is the safest state in the nation for children," Bailey said.
In its decision, the court dismantled the plaintiffs’ arguments, stating that their logic could lead to allowing minors to engage in harmful activities such as drug use or obtaining abortions if a single medical professional recommended it.
The court emphasized that similar arguments have been routinely rejected by other courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.
Bailey’s office built its case around evidence gathered during a 2023 investigation into a pediatric transgender clinic in St. Louis.
The inquiry was launched after a whistleblower alleged the clinic engaged in unethical practices, including prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones without proper assessments, pressuring parents into consent and continuing harmful treatments despite adverse effects.
The whistleblower also claimed the clinic had unlawfully billed state taxpayers for these services and provided evidence supporting the allegations.
The clinic ceased offering gender transition treatments for minors in September, shortly after preliminary challenges to the law, Senate Bill 49, were dismissed.
Bailey remains active in related legal battles, pushing for the clinic to release additional documents. His office has successfully compelled compliance in three other cases involving clinics subpoenaed for records.
In a provided statement regarding his push for having Planned Parenthood-St. Louis provide certain documents, he noted that he would continue his investigation.
"It’s a big day here in Missouri, as the Court just ordered Planned Parenthood-St. Louis to turn over documents relating to gender transition interventions they performed on minors," he said in the provided statement. "My team will get to the bottom of how this clandestine network of clinics has subjected children to puberty blockers and irreversible surgery, often without parental consent. There is no more important fight than to ensure Missouri is the safest state in the nation for children. No stone will be left unturned in these investigations."
In the Nov. 25 judgment in Cole Circuit Court, Judge R. Craig Carter wrote that Missouri SB 49 was constitutional.
"The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals recently upheld an Indiana statute that was very similar to the present Missouri statute," Craig wrote. "This Court finds that opinion very convincing...This Court finds the 7th Circuit's words extremely persuasive and is in keeping with the courts' limited role in determining the validity of statutes such as Missouri's in the present case."
Cole Circuit Court case number: 23AC-CC04530