A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a judge’s temporary injunction against enforcing the law. The judge has scheduled the trial for April 2 on whether to permanently block the law.
Alabama’s Attorney General Steve Marshall celebrated the decision saying, “The Eleventh Circuit reinforced that the State has the authority to safeguard the physical and psychological wellbeing of minors, even if the United States Attorney General and radical interest groups disapprove. Alabama takes this responsibility seriously by forbidding doctors from prescribing minors sex-modification procedures that have permanent and often irreversible effects. This is a significant victory for our country, for children, and for common sense.”
The ruling follows a string of decisions in recent weeks against similar bans. A federal judge in June struck down a similar law in Arkansas, the first state to enact such a ban. At least 20 states enacted laws restricting or banning hormone treatments and surgery for minors.
Bans have also been temporarily blocked by federal judges in Florida, Indiana, and Kentucky. A federal appeals court has allowed Tennessee’s ban, which had been blocked by a federal judge, to take effect.
The ruling applies to only the Alabama ban but comes as most of the state bans are being challenged in court.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act into law in 2022, making it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison for doctors to treat people under 19 with puberty blockers or hormones. At the time the Governor said, “There are very real challenges facing our young people, especially with today’s societal pressures and modern culture,” Ivey said Friday in a statement. “I believe very strongly that if the Good Lord made you a boy, you are a boy, and if he made you a girl, you are a girl.”
She went on to say, “We should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life”
Four families with children ranging in ages 12 to 17 challenged the Alabama law as an unconstitutional violation of equal protection and free speech rights, claiming that the protections were an intrusion into family medical decisions. The U.S. Department of Justice joined their lawsuit, seeking to overturn the law.
Major medical groups, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, oppose the bans, and experts say treatments are safe if properly administered.
Marshall has previously spoke out in support of the ban saying, “On April 8, 2022, Alabama enacted the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act to protect children from experimental medical interventions that have no proven benefits and carry with them substantial risk of long-term, irreversible harm.
“The law reflects a growing international consensus that children suffering from gender dysphoria should not be receiving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries. Children who take these drugs risk permanent infertility, loss of sexual function, increased risk of heart attack and stroke, bone-density problems, risk of altered brain development, and psycho-social harms from delayed puberty. Conversely, the majority of children who experience dysphoria will have it resolve naturally by adulthood, if not subjected to the interventions above.”
U.S. District Judge Liles Burke, who was nominated to the court by President Donald Trump in 2017, ruled when issuing the preliminary injunction that Alabama had produced no credible evidence to show that transitioning medications are “experimental.”
Alabama then appealed to the 11th Circuit.
Burke allowed two other parts of the law to take effect. One bans gender-affirming surgeries for transgender minors, which doctors had testified are not done on minors in Alabama. The other requires counselors and other school officials to tell parents if a minor discloses that they think they are transgender.
Marshall’s office said in a statement, “Attorney General Marshall has been successful in leading this legal battle across the nation, providing support to other states as they defend similar laws to protect children from sterilizing medical interventions pushed by medical interest groups driven by profit and radical ideology. In August, Marshall led a multistate brief in Missouri highlighting the dishonesty of advocacy groups like the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH). Similarly, in July, General Marshall filed a brief on behalf of 21 states in the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals supporting Tennessee’s and Kentucky’s laws protecting minors from chemical and surgical sex-modification procedures for kids.”
More GOP states are poised to enact similar protections to what critics have called experimental treatment for minors. Democratic governors in Louisiana and North Carolina have vetoed bans, but both are expected to be overridden by Republican-led legislatures.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
