COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — Ohio can resume enforcing a law banning certain healthcare for transgender youth while litigation continues, the state’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.

The court announced Tuesday it’s granting a request from Attorney General Dave Yost to pause an appellate court decision that said House Bill 68, Ohio’s law banning gender-affirming care for minors, is unconstitutional. The appeals court overturned H.B. 68 in March, arguing an injunction should be imposed against the law’s provision banning certain prescriptions. Watch a previous NBC4 report on the appellate court decision in the video player above.

Yost has yet to release a statement on Tuesday’s decision. The legal battle follows an August ruling from Franklin County Commons Pleas Judge Michael Holbrook that said H.B. 68 could go into effect after being on hold for several months. The ACLU then appealed Holbrook’s decision on behalf of two families whose children are at risk of losing access to their healthcare. 

Freda Levenson, legal director at the ACLU of Ohio, said it’s “a terrible shame that the Supreme Court of Ohio is permitting the state to evade compliance with the Ohio Constitution.”

“Our clients have suffered tangible and irreparable harm during the eight months that HB 68 has been in place, including being denied essential health care in their home state,” said Levenson. “The court of appeals was correct that H.B. 68 violates at least two separate provisions of the Ohio Constitution.”

Yost had said in a statement at the time of the appellate court decision in March that he would seek an immediate stay, promising “there is no way I’ll stop fighting to protect these unprotected children.”

“Ohio’s elected representatives properly passed legislation protecting children from irreversible chemical sex change procedures, and the trial court upheld the law,” Yost said. “But now the 10th district court of appeals has just greenlighted these permanent medical interventions against minors.”