A federal appeals court ruled on Thursday that Alabama can soon start enforcing restrictions outlawing the use of hormones and puberty blockers to address transgender people under the age of 19, granting the government’s request to lift an initial injunction that had prevented the 2022 law from being enforced.
Families with transgender children petitioned the full appellate court to reconsider the ruling, which the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had earlier ruled may be vacated. However, the decision had been successfully put on hold. The restrictions will remain in place until the whole court decides whether to overturn its ruling on Thursday.
The order was referred to as a “major success for our state, for children, and for common sense” by state attorney general Steve Marshall.
Through the application of the Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, Marshall stated that “our children’s physical and psychological safety can now be better protected from these unproven and potentially harmful substances and medical techniques.”
The restrictions did “hurt parents and children in the state,” according to attorneys defending transgender adolescent parents who opposed it.
According to a joint declaration from GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Soldiers, the National Center for Lesbian Rights, Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Human Rights Campaign, Alabama’s restrictions on transgender medical care did hurt thousands of these teenagers across the state and put parents in an agonizing position of being unable to provide for their children.
Alabama Governor The Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, which was signed into law by Kay Ivey in 2022, makes it a crime for doctors to administer hormones or puberty blockers to children under the age of 19 in order to help them affirm their gender identity.
At least 22 states have passed legislation restricting or outlawing gender-affirming health treatment for transgender adolescents, and many of them are currently subject to legal action or had their policies thwarted. The primary law in Arkansas was struck down by a federal judge who claimed the moratorium violated the due process rights of younger transgender people and their families. Courts have issued conflicting decisions.
The government’s restrictions on gender-affirming treatment for minors, which a lower judge allowed to go into effect, has been challenged by attorneys for Tennessee transgender youth and their families. If the court hears the case, it is anticipated that it will determine later this year.
The Alabama legislation was criticized by four families with transgender children between the ages of 12 and 17 for violating their right to free speech and equal protection, as well as for interfering with their ability to make family medical decisions. In an effort to change the law, the US Department of Justice joined their complaint.
When issuing the initial order, U.S. District Judge Liles Burke, who was appointed to the court by then-President Donald Trump in 2017, ruled that Alabama had not produced any convincing evidence to support the idea that switching drugs are “experimental.” Alabama filed an appeal with the 11th Circuit regarding the ruling. The Alabama restrictions challenge is expected to go to trial at the beginning of this year.
