A second Australian jurisdiction has moved to ban puberty blockers for transgender children, taking aim at what its government labelled an ideologically driven treatment.
The Northern Territory’s Country Liberal Party government on Sunday announced a ban in line with Queensland, the first state to outlaw the therapy.
NT Health Minister Steve Edgington said the government was barring the treatment for under 18s, saying children should be safe from “dangerous ideologically driven practices”.
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In October, Queensland’s Liberal National Party government reinstated a ban first imposed in January just hours after it was overturned by a landmark court ruling.
It was a major setback for the transgender community which has vowed to keep fighting for the “life-affirming health care”, with a second legal challenge being considered.
Edgington said public access to puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormones would cease for children under 18, in line with Queensland, New Zealand and several European countries.
“In other places, cases have emerged where children as young as 12 were treated outside clinical guidelines, including an absence of parental consent,” he said in a statement.
“Territory kids deserve to grow up free from these dangerous ideologically driven practices with irreversible consequences.”
The ban would affect a “handful of teenagers” who had been accessing the drugs through the public-health system, Edgington said.
The territory’s public health focus would remain on adolescent mental health services, he said.
Following the reinstatement of the Queensland ban, the LGBTI Legal Service flagged a further legal challenge.
“The LGBTI Legal Service will continue to explore all legal options on behalf of our clients to support trans and gender diverse young people to access the life-affirming healthcare they need,” the service’s Ren Shike told AAP at the time.
“In the words of our client, ‘our kids are not political footballs’.”
The service had backed a trans teen’s mother who launched a challenge against Queensland’s Liberal National government after it first halted hormone treatment.
Justice Peter Callaghan overturned the ban after finding Queensland Health executives were given just 22 minutes to consider the directive to pause puberty blockers.
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