new zealand banned puberty blockers for trans kids, and a court froze it before it started. now a judge has thrown the whole thing out. shortest reign ever.

via the High Court of New Zealand, RNZ and Stuff

New Zealand's ban on new puberty blocker prescriptions for trans young people was supposed to start on Dec. 19, 2025. Days before, a court paused it. On Wednesday, the High Court in Wellington finished the job. "I declare that the Regulations are unlawful and invalid," Justice Dale La Hood wrote. "The Regulations are set aside."

So a ban that never banned anything is now officially nothing. We have seen soufflés last longer.

what the court actually found

The case was brought by PATHA, the Professional Association for Transgender Health Aotearoa, against Health Minister Simeon Brown. The judgment lands on two grounds. First, the government never consulted on a total ban, only on lighter restrictions, and failed to consult gender-diverse young people directly. Second, the ban discriminated on the ground of disability under the country's Bill of Rights, because it denied this one group "clinically appropriate medicine to which their peers have access for different conditions."

The judge did not say the minister had no reason to act. He said there was "a rational basis" for some restrictions, given the U.K.'s approach after the Cass Review. But "a complete prohibition on new prescriptions was a disproportionate response," particularly one meant to last until a U.K. clinical trial that he said is likely to take many years to finish. He also wrote that puberty blockers have "the overwhelming clinical support of the medical profession in appropriate cases."

the part winston peters won't love

PATHA also argued the ban was really about advancing NZ First's "anti-woke" agenda. The judge rejected that, accepting the minister's sworn evidence that it was his own independent decision.

Within hours, NZ First leader Winston Peters posted that his was "the only party who fought hard to ensure the government brought this ban in," and demanded an immediate appeal. "Our country needs to come to our senses and base these critical health decisions on evidence," he wrote. "Not on process." The ruling, for the record, was about both.

"I'm pleased that the court agreed that this ban was an act of unjustified discrimination," PATHA president Jennifer Shields told RNZ. Family First NZ said it was "shocked." A spokesperson for Brown said the government is "seeking advice on next steps," and remains committed to new safeguards, RNZ reports. Neither RNZ nor Stuff reported any appeal being filed.