US Justice Department Challenges Alabama Law Criminalizing Trans Health Care For Minors

The US Justice Department filed a lawsuit Friday challenging a new Alabama law that criminalizes certain medical care for transgender children, marking the first time the agency has sued a state over restrictions on gender-affirming care.

According to NBC News, the complaint, filed in the US District Court in Alabama, asks the court to block the law from taking effect, arguing it violates the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause “by discriminating on the basis of sex and transgender status.”

The Alabama law “would force parents of transgender minors, medical professionals, and others to choose between forgoing medically necessary procedures and treatments, or facing criminal prosecution,” the Justice Department said in a news release.

Governor Kay Ivey, a Republican, signed the GOP-backed bill into law this month, making it a felony for parents and medical professionals to “engage in or cause” gender-affirming medical care to minors in the state, including puberty blockers, hormones, and surgery.

In a statement, Ivey said she signed the bill because she believes that “if the Good Lord made you a boy, you are a boy, and if he made you a girl, you are a girl.”

“We should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs, and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life,” she added.

Ivey also enacted a bill that would prohibit transgender students from using school facilities divided by sex that align with their gender identities.

The governor's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Justice Department's lawsuit.