Paul Hruz is a doctor often hired to testify in support of political bans on health care for transgender youth. Such bans have been passed in 26 states. When the mother of a transgender teen asked Hruz what would happen if children like hers were denied access to health care, he said, "Some children are born into this world to suffer and die."

As a pediatrician—and a human being—I reject that brand of fatalism and my patients' parents do, too. So does my entire profession. That's why I worked with other health care providers and experts to submit an amicus brief in U.S. v. Skrmetti urging the Supreme Court to affirm unfettered access to best-practice health care for transgender youth and protect their parents' ability to pursue that care for their children.

Tennessee's law bars parents from making health care decisions for their minor children and with their doctors—but only if those children are transgender. The stories of two patients of mine make this ban's flaws and contradictions clear. Catherine was an infant who weighed less than two pounds when I cared for her in the neonatal ICU and Sarah was 12 years old when her parents sought a referral for hormone therapy.

Both girls received world-class medical care with their parents at the helm, but for very different reasons: Catherine was born 12 weeks early and Sarah is a transgender girl on the cusp of male puberty.........

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