Lawsuit challenges South Carolina's transgender health care legislation

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WRDW/WAGT) – A legal challenge now faces a controversial new law in South Carolina.

H.4624, also known as the “Help Not Harm Act,” has already had significant impacts on gender-affirming care since Gov. Henry McMaster signed it into law in late May.

Now a group of transgender South Carolinians are suing to stop them from continuing.

“It’s definitely something that has just been this looming cloud, if you will, over the last three months,” said M. Greg Green, a transgender man who lives in the Midlands.

The lawsuit was filed late Thursday in federal court in Charleston by three transgender South Carolina adults and two families of transgender teens.

In it, they argue the state law “has had and will continue to have devastating consequences for transgender individuals and their families in South Carolina” and claim it violates various federal laws.

Green isn’t among the plaintiffs and said he has not been impacted yet by the law but expects that could happen.

“Now having to figure out how am I going to maintain the medically necessary things that I need is very scary,” Green said.

Green is not alone in those fears.

“I’m a transgender man myself, and I haven’t lost care, but I wake up every morning, worried about it,” Jace Woodrum, executive director of the ACLU of South Carolina, said.

The ACLU’s attorney are representing the plaintiffs, who are asking the court to block three key provisions in the law: a ban on minors from undergoing gender-transition procedures, including surgeries, puberty blockers, and hormone therapy; a prohibition on Medicaid from covering these procedures for anyone, minors and adults; and a ban on state dollars directly or indirectly going toward these procedures.

Because of the latter, the state-funded Medical University of South Carolina announced earlier this summer it would no longer provide gender-affirming care to patients of all ages.

While most of the law went into effect with the governor’s signature in May, the ban on gender-transition procedures for minors is not scheduled to take effect until next January.

In total, the ACLU estimates around 800 transgender South Carolinians have lost or will lose access to care.

“On the one hand, 800 people is not insignificant,” Woodrum said. “On the other hand, we have a fairly small population that lawmakers are picking on with this mean-spirited, unconstitutional, political attack.”

MUSC is among the defendants named in the lawsuit, as is Attorney General Alan Wilson.

The Attorney General’s Office said it does not comment on pending litigation but “will vigorously defend the state’s laws.”

McMaster defended the law he signed this year in a statement, saying he “will continue to support our State’s efforts to fight back against those who wish to force harmful gender transition procedures on our children.”

Earlier this year, the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit — which includes South Carolina — found bans on government-sponsored insurance from covering transgender healthcare procedures in North Carolina and West Virginia were illegal.

The new South Carolina law also requires certain school staff notify parents about information concerning their child’s gender identity, like if they ask to use a pronoun that does not align with their sex.

But those school-related provisions are not being challenged in this lawsuit.

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