The Biden administration and several legal groups are getting set to fight it out with red states over laws aimed at banning kids from getting transgender hormone treatments.
The Washington Free Beacon pointed out Alabama GOP Gov. Kay Ivey recently signed a bill to prohibit children from receiving hormone therapy and puberty blockers. The outlet noted Alabama is the third state to ban the treatment for children.
The Associated Press reported two families with transgender teens and two physicians sued the state of Alabama on Monday in an attempt to get the law thrown out. The outlet said the law makes it a crime for doctors to treat transgender youth under 19 with puberty blockers or hormones to help affirm their gender identity.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court three days after Ivey signed the measure into law.
"By signing SB 184 Gov. Ivey has told kind, loving, and loyal Alabama families that they cannot stay here without denying their children the basic medical care they need," Dr. Morissa Ladinsky, one of the plaintiffs, wrote in a statement. "She has undermined the health and well-being of Alabama children and put doctors like me in the horrifying position of choosing between ignoring the medical needs of our patients or risking being sent to prison."
The Free Beacon reported the White House also blasted the Alabama law this week when press secretary Jen Psaki said hormone therapy for children is "lifesaving healthcare."
Steve Marshall, the Republican attorney general of Alabama, said: "It is undoubtedly difficult for the Biden administration, including the Department of Justice, to accept that Alabama is a sovereign state. We're prepared to act like it."
Lynly Egyes, legal director of the Transgender Law Center, wrote in a statement released by the ACLU: "What we are seeing in the state of Alabama is another misguided attempt to control the lives of transgender people. This legislation is one of the most aggressive in the country and will directly negatively impact transgender youth, their families, and their supporters."
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered the state's child welfare agency to investigate gender-confirming care for kids and report it as abuse, according to the AP. But the Free Beacon reported when Abbott's order came down, a Texas appeals court blocked it when the ACLU filed a challenge.
An Arkansas law also bans gender-affirming medications, but the Free Beacon reported the law has been blocked by a federal court in response to a court challenge from the ACLU.
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