Judge Craig Carter, a Wright County judge serving in Cole County for Missouri’s gender-affirming care trial, listens to testimony. “There were so many binders of evidence that were piled so high on the bench that the court’s vision was at times obscured,

Plaintiffs were challenging the block on gender-affirming health care, ahead of a US Supreme Court case next month.

JEFFERSON CITY — A Missouri judge on Monday upheld a 2023 state law that prohibits physicians from providing hormone treatment and puberty blockers to transgender youth. The $570 million project, which received incentives Tuesday from both the city and state, has strong backing from the federal government.

The judge also suggested that treating gender dysphoria could be a slippery slope to depriving the Missouri legislature of its ability to regulate drugs.

Missouri AG Bailey's court win makes Missouri the first state to uphold a law banning gender procedures and hormone treatments for minors.

A circuit court judge in Cole County, Missouri, on Monday upheld the state's law that bans transgender health care for minors.