This week, multiple national UK media outlets reported that a case against the National Health Service (NHS) prescribing puberty blockers to trans teens had reached the High Court. But Pink News reports, a judicial press office confirmed on 23 January that “the case hasn’t yet started”.
The report says the story originated with the Press Association on 22 January and has been called “a landmark case” and an “unprecedented legal challenge” that “has reached the High Court”.
But, the report says, despite all the articles about it quoting the “claimants” anti-trans views extensively, it’s not actually true.
While two people have applied to the High Court for a judicial review into whether under-16s can be prescribed puberty blockers by doctors, or whether a court should decide if they can be prescribed them on a case-by-case basis, the case did not reach the High Court.
The report says that’s because the High Court hasn’t even decided if the case is worth hearing yet.
A spokesperson for HMCTS, the UK court system, is quoted in the report as saying: “The court (has) confirmed that there was a hearing yesterday… it was only to decide the issue of whether a third claimant should be added (granted) and whether the second claimant should be granted anonymity (granted).
“Permission is still yet to be considered, so the case hasn’t yet started.”
The Guardian had reported that Tavistock and Portman NHS foundation trust, which runs the UK’s only gender identity development service (Gids) for children, is being sued over concerns that young people are being given “experimental treatment” without adequate assessments.
The report says the case is being brought by a woman known only as Mrs A, the mother of a 15-year-old autistic girl who is on the waiting list for treatment at the service.
At a hearing in London, Mrs A’s barrister, Jeremy Hyam QC, is quoted in the report as saying: “What is challenged is the current and continuing practice of the defendant … to prescribe puberty-suppressing hormone blockers and then subsequently cross-sex hormones to children under the age of 18.”
[link url="https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2020/01/24/puberty-blockers-uk-high-court-trans-teenagers-life-saving-fact-check/"]Full Pink News report[/link]
[link url="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jan/22/high-court-stop-nhs-giving-puberty-blockers-children"]Full report in The Guardian[/link]