Georgia Gov. Kemp signed SB 140 banning gender-affirming surgery and hormone therapy for minors

On March 23, 2023, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed Senate Bill 140 into law, prohibiting licensed healthcare facilities and physicians in Georgia from performing sex-reassignment surgeries or providing hormone replacement therapy to minors under 18 for the treatment of gender dysphoria. The measure had passed the Georgia General Assembly, clearing the state Senate on a 31-21 vote two days earlier.

The law carves out narrow exceptions for treatments addressing medically verifiable disorders of sex development — including ambiguous genitalia, chromosomal abnormalities, and partial androgen insensitivity syndrome — and grandfathers in minors already receiving irreversible hormone therapy before July 1, 2023. Violations subject physicians to administrative discipline by the Georgia Composite Medical Board and expose licensed facilities to sanctions up to and including revocation of their operating permits.

SB 140 added Georgia to a growing number of Republican-led states restricting gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. Kemp announced the signing publicly, framing the law as safeguarding the health and well-being of Georgia's children, while medical and LGBTQ advocacy groups said it outlawed evidence-based care.

Updates

2023-08-20 — Federal court blocked SB 140 hormone ban statewide [3, 4]

On August 20, 2023, U.S. District Judge Sarah Geraghty issued a statewide preliminary injunction in Koe v. Noggle, barring Georgia from enforcing SB 140's ban on hormone therapy for transgender minors while the case proceeded. The court found the plaintiffs were substantially likely to prove the law violates the Equal Protection Clause.

2023-09-05 — Judge stayed injunction, reinstating the ban [3]

On September 5, 2023, Judge Geraghty stayed her own preliminary injunction after the Eleventh Circuit upheld a similar Alabama ban in Eknes-Tucker v. Governor of Alabama as binding precedent, allowing Georgia to resume enforcing SB 140 pending further litigation.

2024-09-13 — Court kept SB 140 injunction stayed, closed case pending Skrmetti [5]

On September 13, 2024, Judge Geraghty granted a joint motion to maintain the stay of the preliminary injunction and further defer the pending motion for reconsideration while the case was administratively closed pending the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in United States v. Skrmetti, with the parties directed to notify the court once the decision issued.

2025-06-18 — Supreme Court upheld similar state ban, controlling the stayed Georgia case [6]

On June 18, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Skrmetti that Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming hormone therapy and surgery for minors does not violate the Equal Protection Clause, applying rational-basis review — the precedent question on which Georgia's case had been stayed since September 2024. As of this recording, no further disposition of Koe v. Noggle following the Skrmetti ruling could be independently verified.