Activists gather on the steps of the Statehouse on Wednesday, Jan. 10, 2024, ahead of a Senate hearing on the bill finally signed into law in May 2024. A lawsuit challenging the bill was dropped on Oct. 7, 2025. (Photo by Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
COLOMBIA — A group of adults, children and their parents dropped out of a challenge called South Carolina Law which prohibits all gender reassignment procedures for adolescents and prevents taxpayers from paying for procedures for adults.
The decision made last week by lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union ended the lawsuit August 2024. A argued Act signed three months earlier, it violated South Carolina transgender people’s constitutional right to equal protection by denying them the same access to health care as their peers who are covered for hormones and surgery.
“This was a heartbreaking decision, and the legal team continues to advocate for the rights of transgender and nonbinary South Carolinians and their access to gender-affirming health care,” ACLU spokesman Paul Bowers said in a statement, dwindling to further explain why lawyers made the decision.
Last year’s Statehouse debate focused on detention puberty blockers and other hormone therapies for minors under 18 – along with the possibility of surgery, which even sponsors found inappropriate for minors in South Carolina. The law also specifically Banned Medicaid from covering everything procedures. Ultimately, however, this restricted options even for adults with private insurance.
This is due to the line of law that prohibits payment from public funds “directly or indirectly on gender reassignment procedures.”
According to the bill’s Republican Party supporters, the line was intended to block state health plan payments to public sector workers. But it also forced the Medical University of South Carolina, which receives state funding, to stop doing so offers all treatments regardless of the patient’s age and health plan.
The plaintiffs in the lawsuit were a transgender man whose surgery was canceled by MUSC.
The ACLU’s decision to withdraw the case follows a ruling and directive from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Judges in June upheld a similar law in Tennessee, which bans gender reassignment therapy for transgender youth.
That’s what ACLU lawyers said at the time Ruling 6-3 it won’t end their fight. They argued that it did not resolve legal issues regarding a broader South Carolina law that also affected adults.
Then, in overdue June, the justices asked the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider their decision to require government funding health plans in North Carolina and West Virginia to cover the costs of treatment and surgery for transgender people.
Specifically, a lower court ruling it involved North Carolina’s state health insurance plan and West Virginia’s Medicaid program.
Due to the cases’ similarity to the South Carolina lawsuit, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel stayed the Palmetto State case until the appeals court issues a up-to-date ruling, taking into account the precedent set by the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Tennessee.
As of Monday, the lower court had not yet made such a decision.
However, ACLU lawyers decided not to wait any longer. They changed course and on October 7 informed Gergel in a one-sentence letter that the plaintiffs wanted to dismiss the lawsuit.
Attorney General Alan Wilson’s office says the ACLU would have lost anyway.
The Supreme Court’s ruling made clear that the Constitution’s equal protection clause does not cover treatment of transgender people regarding gender reassignment, lawyers in his office wrote in legal documents.
Because of this, South Carolina can draw the line on what gender reassignment treatments it will cover and what it won’t cover without court interference, they argued.
“I am proud to aggressively defend South Carolina law and will continue to do so if necessary,” Wilson said in a statement Monday.
Senate Medical Affairs Chairman Danny Verdin, who sponsored the Senate version of the bill, said he was glad the lawsuit was dropped.
“The ACLU would be wise to stop pushing taxpayer-funded gender reassignment for children, but if it doesn’t, South Carolina will be ready to fight for truth and common sense,” Laurens, a Republican, said in a statement.
South Carolina’s law, signed into law in May 2024, was never suspended by a court challenge.
It specifically prohibits health care providers from providing or prescribing retirement-related treatment to anyone under 18 years of age. Criminals may be disciplined by the medical licensing board for unprofessional behavior. They can be too defendant.
The law allowed A phase-out period for medications. All youth prescriptions had to expire by January 31, 2025.
Prison is possible if a doctor performs surgery related to the transition to a minor. The law classifies operations such as: causing stern bodily injury to the childa crime punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
This story was originally produced by Gazeta Codzienna SCwhich is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that includes the Ohio Capital Journal and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.
