A federal judge ruled on Thursday that Alabama may enforce its criminal restrictions on gender-affirming health treatment for minors, granting the state’s request to lift an initial injunction that had prevented state officials from enforcing the ban for more than a year.
The 2022 law, which makes it illegal for doctors to prescribe estrogen or puberty blockers to trans people under 19, was lifted by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in a two-page order on Thursday. Convicted individuals may face up to ten years in jail.
U.S. District Judge Liles C. Burke stated in the 2022 order that Alabama had not provided any convincing evidence to support the claim that gender-affirming solutions are “experimental.”
That ruling was overturned by a federal appeals court in August. A three-judge panel for the 11th Circuit wrote in its 59-page decision, citing the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, that the use of these drugs in general, let alone for children, is almost certainly not “deep-rooted” in our nation’s history and tradition.
The district court’s preliminary injunction was also requested to be lifted by Alabama attorneys in November, and on Thursday, the 11th Circuit granted it in a short, unsigned order.
The Alabama individuals’ request for a rehearing of the legislation is still pending, and an August full hearing on the ban’s validity is scheduled.
The decision on Thursday was praised by Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall as “a major victory for our state, for children, and for common sense.”
The decision may seriously hurt children and parents in Alabama, according to a joint statement from attorneys for the people challenging the law.
According to the statement, which was released on Thursday by the National Center for Lesbian Rights, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Human Rights Campaign, Alabama’s restrictions on transgender healthcare did hurt thousands of trans-adolescent adolescents across the state and will put parents in the excruciating position of not being able to get the health care their children need to thrive.
23 states, including Alabama, have passed laws or policies that severely limit or outlaw gender-affirming health care for transgender adolescents. In five states—Alabama, Florida, Oklahoma, North Dakota, and Idaho—laws have been passed that make it a misdemeanor crime to treat transgender children under the age of 18.
