National Nurses United (NNU), the nation’s largest nurses’ union and professional association, today condemned the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Tennessee’s 2023 law restricting minors’ access to gender transition care. The justices’ 6-3 decision stated that Tennessee’s law was not discriminatory, potentially allowing other state bans on transgender care for adults to withstand legal challenges.

Nurses support our trans patients because care is a human right. Transgender care is health care, and health care decisions should be made by patients with their health care providers, not the government. Gender-affirming care for trans youth is lifesaving health care. 

Law and policies that bar patients from accessing medically sound forms of health care, including gender-affirming care and reproductive care, are obvious and deliberate attempts to worsen, not improve, the lives of patients.

NNU stands with our trans members, patients, other trans workers, the broader trans community, and all those fighting for gender and health justice.

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.