T.D. v. Wrigley:
North Dakota Supreme Court upholds ban on gender-affirming health care for trans young people
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 17, 2026
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Lauren Himiak, Interim Communications Director
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Ruling opens the door to government intrusion into the private lives of all North Dakotans.
Today, the North Dakota Supreme Court upheld the district court’s ruling in T.D. v. Wrigley, leaving in place North Dakota’s sweeping ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth.
“This ruling is devastating for transgender youth and their families in North Dakota — and it should worry every North Dakotan who believes private medical decisions should be made by families in consultation with their trusted medical providers, not by politicians,” said Jess Braverman, Legal Director at Gender Justice. “If the North Dakota Constitution does not ban the government from interfering with North Dakotans’ private medical decisions, then all North Dakotans are vulnerable to the whims of politicians when it comes to their ability to access life and health preserving medical care.”
The North Dakota Supreme Court ruled that the state’s constitution provides very few protections from government overreach when it comes to health care for North Dakota youth. This means that the life and health of North Dakotans are in the hands of untrained politicians rather than medical experts.
“This ruling means the government still stands between me and my patients,” said Dr. Luis Casas, the North Dakota-based pediatric endocrinologist at the center of the case. “Families I’ve worked with for years are being forced into an impossible choice: uproot their lives and leave the state, or go without the care their doctors recommend and their kids need.”
Major medical organizations — including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association — support gender-affirming care as safe, effective, and evidence-based. Today’s ruling disregards that medical consensus and stops doctors and families from acting on best-practice medical information.
“North Dakota’s founders wrote a constitution that protects personal freedom and self-determination for all of us, not just some of us,” said Tanya Pellegrini, Co-Director, Litigation, at the Lawyering Project. “When the state can criminalize a doctor for providing a young person with evidence-based medical care, it strips families of the right to make their own medical decisions and hands the government power it was never supposed to have. We will continue to stand with transgender young people and their families until the rights and dignity of all North Dakotans are upheld.”
Not only has the Court limited constitutional protections from government overreach, but the concurring opinion suggests that, unlike the equal protection guarantee of the federal constitution, North Dakotans may not have the same right to equality under the state’s constitution, which would open the door to outright discrimination by the government against its own citizens.
“Trans youth across the country are being singled out and stripped of their basic rights and that’s simply not acceptable,” Braverman added. “We won’t stop fighting until every North Dakota family can get the health care they need without political interference.”
For more on this case, visit: genderjustice.us/work/td-v-wrigley
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Gender Justice is a legal and policy advocacy organization dedicated to advancing gender equity through the law. Our vision is a world where people of all genders, gender identities and expressions, and sexual orientations have the opportunity to thrive. We work toward our vision through impact litigation, advocacy, movement building, and public education.
The Lawyering Project uses the law to improve abortion access and uphold the rights and dignity of people seeking and providing abortion care. Our goal is a legal system that enables each of us to make decisions about intensely personal matters like sex, pregnancy, family, and health care based on our own beliefs and values — and ensures that we all have the resources we need to carry those decisions out.
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