Federal Judge Partially Blocks Alabama Law Protecting Minors from Harmful ‘Sex Change’ Procedures

A federal judge has blocked a portion a newly enacted Alabama law which protected minors from damaging procedures meant to make them appear more like the opposite sex.

The law (SB 184), is titled the “Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act.”

It has two critical parts:

The law makes it a felony for a physician to prescribe puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors and to perform a “sex-change” surgery on anyone under 19.
The statute prohibits school nurses, counselors, teachers, principals and other officials from encouraging a minor to withhold from their parent(s) or legal guardian “the fact that the minor’s perception of his or her gender or sex is inconsistent with the minor’s sex” or to withhold that information themselves.

But after being passed by the Alabama legislature and signed into law by the state’s governor, numerous leftist groups, like the GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), and the Human Rights Campaign Foundation, filed suit against the law.

The law was the first in the nation to protect minors from these harmful, experimental, and anti-scientific procedures, and took effect starting May 8.

But on May 13, U.S. District Judge Liles Burke issued a preliminary injunction against the portion of the law that prohibits physicians from prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to children.

However, the judge kept in place the law’s prohibition on ‘sex-change’ surgeries.

Judge Burke said that plaintiffs were “likely to show that they have a fundamental right to treat their children with transitioning medications subject to medically accepted standards.”

Following the judge’s ruling, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement that his office is currently planning an appeal of the ruling.

“The Attorney General is disappointed in the Court’s decision to enjoin enforcement of a portion of Alabama’s Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, and is already working on filing an appeal in defense of the law,” a spokesperson for the attorney general said.

Any such appeal would likely be heard by 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, a fairly conservative court with seven Republican-appointed judges and four Democrat-appointed ones. The court has appellate jurisdiction over the U.S. district courts in Alabama, Florida and Georgia.

Dealing with transgender issues can be confusing and concerning, especially if someone you know and love is struggling with their gender identity, or believes they are the opposite sex than what they really are.

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