Democratic leaders and professional medical organizations on Wednesday denounced the Supreme Court’s ruling that upheld a 2023 Tennessee law banning gender-affirming care for transgender minors, a decision the high court delivered along ideological lines and one that stands to impact similar laws passed in roughly half the country.

The high court’s three Democratic-appointed justices dissented from the conservative majority. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, said Wednesday’s decision “abandons transgender children and their families to political whims."

“Once again, politicians and judges are inserting themselves in exam rooms,” Rep. Sarah McBride (D-Del.), the nation’s first openly transgender member of Congress, said Wednesday on the social platform X. “This ruling undermines doctors in delivering care to some of the most vulnerable patients in our country.”

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), whose grandson is transgender, said the court’s decision may force families living in Tennessee and other states with restrictions on gender-affirming care for youth to leave their homes to “ensure their kids can access medically necessary care.”

Including Tennessee, 25 Republican-led states since 2021 have passed laws prohibiting health care professionals from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy and rare surgeries to transgender youth. Court challenges to those laws have been met with mixed results.

Responses from other Democratic lawmakers were more succinct.

“This is just wrong,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

Merkley, a Senate sponsor of the Equality Act, filed an amicus brief late last year asking the Supreme Court to strike Tennessee’s law alongside Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Democratic Reps. Mark Pocan (Wis.), Jerrold Nadler (N.Y.) and Frank Pallone (N.J.), who also denounced the court’s ruling on Wednesday.

“Today, hate won,” Markey said in a statement.

In 2023, Markey and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), whose adult child is transgender, introduced

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