Alabama Can Enforce Ban On Sex Change Treatments For Minors, Appeals Court Rules

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – A court of appeals has ruled that Alabama can at least temporarily enforce a law that bans sex change treatments, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for minors, CBN News reports. A full trial on the constitutionality of the ban is set for August 2024.

Signed by Alabama’s Gov. Kay Ivey in 2022, the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act provides criminal sentences of up to 10 years in prison, or a $15,000 fine, or both, for physicians who prescribe puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to anyone under the age of 19.

The case arose when the US Justice Department joined a lawsuit filed by parents of transgender adolescents to challenge the ban on the grounds that “parents, not the government, are best situated to make these medical decisions for their children.”

The 11th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that the Vulnerable Child Act can be implemented even before the full appellate court decides whether it will review the decision, CBN News reports.

“The plaintiffs have not presented any authority that supports the existence of a constitutional right to ‘treat (one’s) children with transitioning medications subject to medically accepted standards,'” Judge Barbara Lagoa of the US 11th Circuit Court of Appeals wrote on behalf of the court.

“States have a compelling interest in protecting children from drugs, particularly those for which there is uncertainty regarding benefits, recent surges in use, and irreversible effects,” the judge said.

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