On today’s show: The Supreme Court hears a major case on transgender health care that could have sweeping implications for all Americans. The 19th’s Orion Rummler breaks it down. Elizabeth Findell of the Wall Street Journal explains why homebuilders are worried about Trump’s next term. Palestinians in Gaza are braced for a harsh winter. CNN reports. Plus, the Department of Labor announces new rules that could impact Americans with disabilities, Biden visits Angola, and NPR shares tips to protect your packages from porch pirates.
Full Episode
Good morning. It's Wednesday, December 4th. I'm Shamita Basu. This is Apple News Today. On today's show, why home builders are worried about Trump's next term, Gaza prepares for a brutal winter, and how to keep your packages safe from porch pirates.
But first, when Tennessee banned gender-affirming care for transgender kids last year, Sarah took time off from work to drive her son hundreds of miles from Nashville to a clinic in North Carolina that would treat him. A month later, North Carolina enacted a similar ban. Sarah, who's using a pseudonym out of concern for her family's safety, told CNN she did the math and she panicked.
The closest state without a ban was now Ohio, more than 400 miles away. This is a scenario more and more parents of transgender kids are facing, as states ban the type of care that they say they need. And today, the Supreme Court will weigh in on the issue of health care for trans minors for the first time.
The court will decide whether Tennessee can keep a ban in place on things like puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery for transgender minors. But as reporter Orion Rumler with The 19th tells us, this goes beyond Tennessee.
26 states ban this care very similarly to how Tennessee does. So whatever the court says here in this case will set precedent in these other states.
Last year, the ACLU filed a lawsuit against Tennessee arguing that banning this type of health care for trans kids violates the 14th Amendment. That is discrimination based on sex. Tennessee's attorney general has said the law is not discriminatory because it applies to all genders and that it sets age and use based limits on these treatments.
Rumler said this idea that health care procedures can be banned for certain purposes or certain groups has some experts concerned about what this case could mean for all people.
If a state can do this, if a state can step in and say, we want to ban or restrict this form of medical care for a specific demographic group of people, they see that as dangerous and that it could potentially enable the government to control people's health decisions or enact what many legal experts would consider other blatantly discriminatory policies.
Similar bans have ended up in court before, though with mixed results. A judge in Arkansas temporarily blocked that state's ban from going into effect, though state lawmakers ended up passing a law that makes it difficult for physicians to get malpractice insurance coverage for gender-affirming care, effectively what some call a backdoor ban.
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