Gov. Henry McMaster Leads Coalition of Governors in Defense of Help Not Harm Laws
October 16, 2024
Governor Henry McMaster today was joined on Tuesday by nine other Republican governors in filing an amicus brief in United States v. Skrmetti supporting Tennessee’s Help Not Harm Law that prohibits physicians from performing or providing gender-reassignment surgeries, puberty-blocking drugs, and cross-sex hormones to minors. The case will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court this term.
“Governors have signed these prohibitions on experimental gender-transition procedures into law because they–and the citizens of their States–want to protect children. The goal is to keep children from making life-changing decisions that they may later regret,” the brief argues. “That’s not some radical position. States prohibit children from making certain decisions all the time.”
The brief continues: “In other words, Governors signing laws that protect minors is nothing new. Just as Governors sought to protect children by keeping them from buying handguns or getting tattoos, so too did the Governors who signed the Help Not Harm bills.”
In March 2023, Tennessee passed its version of the Help Not Harm Law, which was initially blocked by a district court following a lawsuit from the ACLU, claiming the law violated the Fourteenth Amendment. However, the Sixth Circuit of Appeals reversed the ruling in September 2023. The case now heads to the U.S. Supreme Court after a writ of certiorari was issued in June 2024.
Gov. McMaster signed South Carolina’s Help Not Harm Law in May 2024. South Carolina’s law prohibits healthcare professionals from knowingly providing gender-transition procedures to a person under 18 years of age. Gender-transition procedures are defined as puberty-blocking drugs, cross-sex hormones, or genital or nongenital gender-reassignment surgery used for the purpose of assisting an individual with a physical gender transition.
The following governors joined Governor McMaster’s brief: Governor Kay Ivey of Alabama, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida, Governor Brian P. Kemp of Georgia, Governor Jeff Landry of Louisiana, Governor Tate Reeves of Mississippi, Governor J. Kevin Stitt of Oklahoma, Governor Kristi Noem of South Dakota, and Governor Spencer J. Cox of Utah.
The full brief can be found here.
