High Court Ruling on Abortion Counseling Breathes New Life Into Challenging Bans on 'Conversion Therapy'

Banning licensed mental health therapists from trying to change a minor patient’s sexual orientation or gender identity violates a new U.S. Supreme Court decision in an unrelated case, opponents of the proposed ban said Wednesday.

The Massachusetts House of Representatives is expected to vote on and likely approve a ban on so-called “conversion therapy” today.

But opponents of the ban in Massachusetts are seizing on a portion of Justice Clarence Thomas’s majority opinion yesterday in a pregnancy-counseling case that challenges the reasoning two lower courts used last year to uphold bans on conversion therapy in other states.

“The efforts of therapists and their clients in those cases stalled as judges ruled that the ‘professional speech’ between mental health professionals and the families they serve was not protected by the First Amendment to our Constitution. However, yesterday morning the Supreme Court of the United States said that it is,” said Andrew Beckwith, president of the Massachusetts Family Institute, which advocates for Judaeo-Christian moral principles on Beacon Hill, in a written statement. “… We applaud that ruling, and we welcome the reassuring and common-sense explanation the Court gave for its decision. … The legislature must not be in the business of putting a gag on our counselors.”

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