State laws banning transgender medical procedures on minors do not violate the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled against a lawsuit seeking to strike down a Tennessee state law prohibiting performing transgender medical procedures, such as puberty blockers and hormone treatments, on minors.

By upholding the ban, the Supreme Court affirmed that states have the constitutional right to pass laws protecting children from irreversible transgender medical interventions.

Tennessee has the right to protect minors from obtaining medical procedures that carry “risks, including irreversible sterility, increased risk of disease and illness, and adverse psychological consequences,” since they lack the maturity to make, and may later come to regret, such life-altering decisions, the High Court ruled.

“Childhood is not a social experiment, MRCTV and MRC Culture Senior Director Eric Scheiner noted, reacting to the decision:

“Today’s ruling solidifies that it’s illegal to medically transition a child in Tennessee. A precedent has been set. Childhood is not a social experiment. If you’re too young to get a tattoo, you’re too young for genital mutilation; it’s common sense.”

Having concluded that Tennessee’s law does not violate the Equal Protection Clause, “we leave questions regarding its policy to the people, their elected representatives, and the democratic process," Chief Justice John Roberts explained, delivering the majority opinion. Additionally, the state law passes “rational basis review,” the decision concludes.

It’s not a court’s job to decide scientific disputes based on the opinion of “self-described experts,” Justice John Thomas wrote in a concurring opinion:

"In politically contentious debates over matters shrouded in scientific uncertainty, courts should not assume that self-described experts are correct."

In the 6-3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett and Samuel Alito concurred with the ruling, while liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.