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WASHINGTON, D.C.: This week, the U.S. Supreme Court allowed Idaho to enforce a Republican-backed law, the Vulnerable Child Protection Act, which criminalizes gender-affirming care for transgender minors.

U.S. District Judge Lynn Winmill previously ruled that the law violated the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment guarantees of due process and equal protection under the law.

However, the Supreme Court granted Republican Idaho Attorney-General Ral Labrador’s request to narrow Winmill’s preliminary injunction, allowing the state to enforce the ban against everyone except the plaintiffs who challenged it.

Five of the court’s six conservative justices concurred with the decision to grant Labrador’s request, while its three liberal justices dissented.

Winmill blocked the Idaho law days before it was set to take effect on January 1 after a lawsuit brought by two transgender girls, 15 and 16, and their parents.

One of many similar measures passed by Republican-led states in recent years, the law prevents medications or surgical interventions for adolescents with gender dysphoria, the clinical diagnosis for the condition caused by an incongruence between a person’s gender identity and their sex at birth.

If they provide treatments, such as puberty blockers, hormones, and mastectomies, that are “inconsistent with the child’s biological sex,” healthcare professionals could face up to up to 10 years in prison under the law.

However, it does not prohibit these treatments for medical conditions such as early puberty or genetic disorders of sexual development if it is consistent with a minor’s biological sex.

“The state has a duty to protect and support all children, and that is why I am proud to defend Idaho’s law that ensures children are not subjected to these life-altering drugs and procedures,” Labrador said after the Supreme Court acted.

The decision allows the state to shut down care for thousands of families in Idaho, stressed the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), representing the plaintiffs.

“While the court’s ruling importantly does not touch upon the constitutionality of this law, it is nonetheless an awful result for transgender youth and their families across the state,” the ACLU said..