Boise, Idaho - Idaho's Republican Attorney General Raúl Labrador has said he plans to appeal a ruling that temporarily halted enforcement of the state's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

Idaho Governor Brad Little signed House Bill 71 into law in April, making it a felony for health care professionals to provide gender transition surgeries, puberty blockers, and hormone treatments to transgender minors.

The measure was set to take effect on January 1 before it was put temporarily on hold on Wednesday by US District Judge B. Lynn Winmill, who ruled it violated the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process and Equal Protection clauses.

"Transgender children should receive equal treatment under the law," Winmill wrote. "Parents should have the right to make the most fundamental decisions about how to care for their children."

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"The federal judiciary once endorsed the eugenics movement and forced sterilization of intellectually disabled people. Similarly, Judge Winmill's ruling places children at risk of irreversible harm. History will not look kindly at this decision," Labrador claimed in a statement.

"We are taking immediate action to appeal this decision and are confident that correction will come," he added. "I will never stop fighting for and protecting our most vulnerable children."

Winmill in her ruling noted that gender-affirming care is "safe, effective, and medically necessary for some adolescents."

The two Idaho families behind the lawsuit say their daughters are less prone to self-harm since undergoing gender-affirming medical treatments.

The suit was also filed together with the ACLU of Idaho, whose executive director, Leo Morales, celebrated Winmill's decision as a "much-needed ray of hope for trans people amid a years-long onslaught against their rights to access health care and ability to navigate the world around them."