Source: Radio New Zealand
The Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa has filed an application for an urgent injunction to prevent the ban coming into effect on 19 December. File photo. RNZ // Angus Dreaver
An urgent legal injunction has been filed to stop the incoming ban on new prescriptions of puberty blockers to treat gender dysphoria.
Cabinet agreed last month to the new settings until a major clinical trial in the United Kingdom ends in 2031.
The drugs – known as gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues – would remain available for people already using them.
The Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa (PATHA) said it had today filed an application for an urgent injunction to prevent the ban coming into effect on 19 December.
A spokesperson for Health Minister Simeon Brown said as the matter was now before the courts, “it would not be appropriate to comment”.
RNZ has also approached the Health Ministry for comment.
The move has been highly controversial, with a number of clinical groups criticising the government decision.
PATHA said it was asking for an urgent judicial review on the grounds that the incoming regulation was “illegal and unethical”.
President Jennifer Shields said the regulations were being enacted “based on politics, not on clinical evidence or best-practice decision making”.
“We won’t let transgender children in Aotearoa be subjected to harm just to ‘win a war on woke’.
“We’re taking this to court because we know what’s right, and we believe the law is on our side.”
Dr Rona Carroll – a GP specialist in gender affirming healthcare – said there was no evidence to justify this “extreme regulation”.
“Only a small number of young people in Aotearoa are prescribed reversible pubertal suppression, but for those who need it the negative impacts of this regulation will be huge. Politicians are ignoring the advice of health professionals, and are not acting in the best interests of children and young people who have a right to access healthcare free from discrimination.”
The coalition government’s move follows a major shift in Britain following the Cass Review – a four-year investigation commissioned by the National Health Service (NHS).
That review, spearheaded by paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass, found there was “not enough evidence to support their safety or clinical effectiveness”, and there were unanswered questions on their long-term impact on brain development and bone development.
In response, the NHS stopped routine access to puberty blockers for new patients. Other countries – including Sweden, Finland and Norway – had already tightened access and guidelines.
The Cass Review split opinion among clinicians and academics world-wide. While some endorsed the call of higher evidence standards, others criticised the report’s methodology and warned it downplayed the risk of denying treatment to young people.
New Zealand’s Health Ministry last year also released a report finding “a lack of high-quality evidence” on the benefits or risks of puberty blockers for gender dysphoria.
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
