Alabama Enacts Law Making It a Felony to Provide Gender-Affirming Care for Trans Teens

Kim Chandler/AP/Shutterstock Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed off on a bill Friday afternoon that makes it a felony for parents or doctors to provide gender-affirming care to transgender kids.

Ivey, a Republican, signed S.B. 184 into law, meaning it is now a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison and/or a fine of up to $15,000 for a doctor to prescribe puberty blockers and hormone therapies, or perform gender-affirming surgeries in people under age 19. Parents who aide in helping their child get that care can also be charged with a felony.

Alabama's House of Representatives voted 66-28 in favor of the law Thursday afternoon before sending it to Ivey's desk, and she quickly signed off on it the next day.

"There are very real challenges facing our young people, especially with today's societal pressures and modern culture," Ivey said 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. We should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life. Instead, let's all focus on helping them to properly develop into the adults God intended them to be."

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The legislation, titled the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, falsely calls the medications "experimental," and lawmakers said their intention is to stop minors from making medical decisions they would regret. Both puberty blockers and hormone therapies are not permanent, and Alabama doctors have said that they rarely, if ever, perform gender-affirming surgeries on minors.

Major medical organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association have said that gender-affirming medical care is a medically-necessary service for transgender kids.

Rep. Wes Allen, a Republican and one of the bill's co-sponsors, claimed that "their brains are not developed to make the decisions long term about what these medications and surgeries do to their body," the Washington Post reported.

Along with the health care bill, Ivey also signed legislation that restricts what bathrooms and locker rooms transgender kids can use, and prevents school staff from talking about gender and sexuality with children in kindergarten to fifth grade.

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Rep. Neil Rafferty, the only openly gay member of Alabama's legislature, called out his colleagues as they went to a vote.

"This is wrong," Rafferty said, according to NPR. "Y'all sit there and campaign on family being the foundation of our nation ... but what this bill is doing is totally undermining that. It's totally undermining family rights, health rights and access to health care."

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The American Civil Liberties Union said Thursday that they would challenge the legislation in court.

"If Alabama lawmakers insist on passing this cruel, dangerous, and unconstitutional legislation into law, the state will immediately have a lawsuit to deal with," Carl S. Charles, senior attorney for Lambda Legal, said in a statement shared by the ACLU.

The Human Rights Campaign condemned Ivey after she signed the bill into law.

"The Governor and her fellow anti-equality legislators in the state capital have recklessly passed a bill that goes directly against the best advice of the medical community and intrudes on the rights of parents and families to make their own medical decisions," said Human Rights Campaign Alabama State Director Carmarion D. Anderson-Harvey. "They have successfully criminalized critically important care that transgender youth need desperately, and the incredible doctors and care providers who help transgender youth each and every day. In doing so they have jeopardized the future of these doctors, families, and transgender youth who are all considering what their livelihoods will be in Alabama."