The U.S. Supreme Court appears poised to strike down a Colorado ban on so-called conversion therapy for minors — a practice that purports to alter the sexual orientation or gender identity of LGBTQ people but has been denounced by every major medical organization in America as harmful and potentially dangerous. The decision could have nationwide consequences for LGBTQ youth in more than twenty states.

Conversion, or reparative, therapy is not backed by science, and those who have experienced it have likened it to torture. There is evidence that it can lead to suicide.

A Christian therapist who does not perform the practice has challenged Colorado’s ban on First Amendment free speech grounds. The New York Times and NBC News both report the Supreme Court appears likely to strike down the ban, which could possibly end bans nationwide.

The Times, describing oral arguments at the high court as “lively,” reported that attorneys for the therapist, from the Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Trump administration, “said there were no studies indicating such therapy causes harm. The state’s lawyer countered that there is a ‘mountain of evidence’ that conversion therapy is ineffective and harmful.”

Talking Points Memo reported that “no amount of medical consensus can convince the Court’s majority that conversion therapy is a debunked, harmful practice — they poke holes in the mountain of evidence on the anti-conversion therapy side (this time, that the many studies weren’t precisely tailored to the case at hand) and elevate pseudoscience on the other.”

Slate on Monday reported that the case is “riddled with distorted facts, fabricated injuries, and flimsy evidence.”

“For instance, the plaintiff, Kaley Chiles, has disclaimed any desire to change her minor patients’ sexual orientation or gender identity, so it is unclear why she has standing to challenge the law in question. Her lawyers insist that banning conversion therapy hurts patients who voluntarily seek it out, but their proof for this assertion is anonymous Reddit posts. Chiles’ attorneys also claim that even LGBTQ+ advocates believe sexual orientation can be altered—but according to the very researchers cited in their brief, they ‘profoundly misrepresented’ those findings through ‘deceptive’ quotations.”

Legal organizations responded.

“Colorado’s law on conversion therapy targets precisely the type of treatment by professionals that states have a strong interest in, and long history of, regulating,” the Constitutional Accountability Center said in a statement. “The First Amendment does not prohibit states from protecting its residents through this sort of regulation simply because the medical treatment that mental health professionals provide is done through speech.”

Planned Parenthood Federation of America President and CEO Alexis McGill Johnson said in a statement: “We don’t have to imagine the devastation forcing children to go to conversion therapy causes. It’s already well-reported: anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder are just some of the horrific and preventable outcomes for the young people subjected to this dangerous, unethical practice.”