Testimony concluded Thursday in a federal bench trial that will decide the constitutionality of Arkansas' first-in-the-nation ban on gender affirming health care for minors with a pediatric endocrinologist from St. Louis who said he has been studying the issue for 10 years and has concluded that until more is known, doctors who provide such care are doing so unethically.
Dr. Paul Hruz, who specializes in childhood diabetes, was on the witness stand for four hours Thursday as he drilled down into much of the medical minutiae involved in pediatric endocrinology and assailed previous studies as only proving that more study is needed into such treatments.
At one point, U.S. District Judge James M. Moody Jr., the presiding judge who will decide on the matter, grew impatient with the repetitiveness of Hruz's testimony, and urged defense attorney Dylan Jacobs to hurry things along.
"He's already testified to that at length," Moody said, exasperated, "for hours."
Moody has not indicated any possible timetable for a ruling in the matter.