Families, doctors challenge ban on transgender treatment in Alabama | Health

Montgomery, Alabama (AP) – Families with transgender teenagers on Monday filed a lawsuit against Alabama in federal court for annulment the law that makes it a crime for physicians to treat trans youth under the age of 19 with puberty blockers or hormones to help confirm their gender identity.

Two lawsuits, one on behalf of two families and the other on behalf of two families and doctors treating their children, are creating legal challenges to legislation signed Friday by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey.

“Transgender youth are part of Alabama, and they deserve the same privacy, access to treatment, and health care based on data from trained health professionals as any other Alabama resident,” said Tish Hotel Folks, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union. Alabama.Folks added that lawmakers are using children as “political pawns for their election campaigns.” Ivy and lawmakers are expecting primaries next month.

If Alabama’s law is not blocked by a court, Alabama’s law will take effect on May 8, making it a felony if a doctor prescribes puberty blockers or hormones to help with gender reassignment for individuals under 19 years of age. Violations will be punishable by up to 10 years in prison. It also bans gender reassignment surgery, although doctors have told lawmakers they are not conducted by minors in Alabama.

“The level of legislative coverage of medical practice is unprecedented. And never before have legal norms entered the offices of pediatric examinations to block the voice of parents in making medical decisions between parents, their pediatrician and their child, “- said Dr. Marisa Ladinsky, a medical worker and plaintiff in one of the lawsuits. Associated Press in an interview.

Ivey signed the law on Friday, the day after it was approved by the Alabama legislature. At a campaign stop on Monday, the governor referred to religion when asked about her decision to sign the law.

“If the good Lord made you a boy at birth, then you are a boy. If the good Lord made you a girl at birth, then you are a girl, ”she said. “We need to focus our efforts especially on helping these young people become healthy adults, the way God wanted them to be, not self-induced medical interventions.”

Asked if the law would stand up in court, she said: “Let’s wait and see.”

Two lawsuits were filed by human rights groups on behalf of families with transgender children, as well as two health workers. The children were not identified in the trials because of their age,

“I know I’m a girl and have always been that way,” one of the 15-year-old plaintiffs said in a statement from the American Civil Liberties Union in Alabama. “I knew myself before I learned the word ‘transgender’ or met other transgender people.”

In one lawsuit, parents described their fears that their transgender daughter, dubbed “Mary Rowe” ​​in costume, would harm herself or attempt suicide if she lost access to the puberty blockers she began taking last year. “For Mary to force her to go through male puberty would be devastating; it is predictable that it would lead to her isolation, depression, anxiety and suffering, ”the lawsuit said.

Similar measures have been applied in other states, but Alabama law is the first to provide criminal penalties for doctors.

In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott orders state agency to protect children investigate as abuse care reports confirming gender for children. And law in Arkansas prohibits drugs that confirm sex. However, this law was blocked by the court.

Ivy also signed a separate measure requiring students to use bathrooms that match their original birth certificate, and banning the teaching of gender and sexual identity in kindergarten until fifth grade.