Wire
Colorado's conversion-therapy ban survives harm test
The Tenth Circuit said Colorado could rely on medical evidence showing the practice is unsupported and risky for minors. That record helped the state defend the law.
Minors in Colorado remain covered by the state’s ban on conversion therapy after a federal appeals court said the state could point to medical evidence, including suicide-risk concerns, to defend it.
The opinion also accepted Colorado's view that the legislature had considered medical evidence about conversion therapy and sexual-orientation change efforts, along with their harms, when it passed the law. That gave the state a basis to argue that the restriction protects minors from ineffective and harmful therapeutic modalities.
Why the record mattered
For families and counselors, the practical effect is simple: the law stays backed by a judicial finding that the state can point to documented harm rather than speculation. The court said Colorado could rely on potential injury and suicide-risk evidence in defending the restriction.
That matters because the fight was never just about labels. It was about whether a state could treat a disputed counseling practice as something it has reason to restrict when the scientific record, in the court's telling, points the other way.