Alabama gender-affirming care ban lawsuit abruptly dismissed
Protestors hold a flag in New Orleans on March 31, 2023 as part of the International Transgender Day of Visibility. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)
The high-profile lawsuit challenging Alabama's 2022 law banning gender-affirming care for transgender youth under 19 has been dismissed by all parties involved.
Neither the plaintiffs – transgender youth and families challenging the ban – or the Alabama attorney's office filed an official explanation for the move or a suggestion of a settlement with the court. In separate statements, the plaintiffs said they would continue to fight for access to the care, while Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall declared it a total victory for the state and a vindication of their position.
'The shutting down of medical care in Alabama has forced our plaintiffs and other Alabama families to make heart wrenching decisions that no family should ever have to make, and they are each making the decisions they need to make that are right for them,' said Scott McCoy, deputy legal director of inclusion and anti-extremism litigation team at the Southern Poverty Law Center, in a joint statement from organizations representing the plaintiffs. 'We salute the courage of these plaintiffs and we will continue fighting to ensure families across the country have the freedom to get their transgender children the proven medical care that enables them to thrive.'
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Marshall declared the dismissal a decisive victory for the state and claimed in a statement that a 'court-ordered discovery' uncovered what he described as 'medical, legal, and political scandal that will be studied for decades.'
'We uncovered the truth,' the statement said. 'We exposed the scandal. We won. Alabama led the way, and now all families are safer for it.'
Messages were left with the Attorney General's office seeking clarification. According to the statement, the discovery process in the case revealed that 'key medical organizations misled parents, promoted unproven treatments as settled science, and ignored growing international concern over the use of sex-change procedures to treat gender dysphoria in minors,' but does not state how.
The statement also alleged that internal communications showed the 'standards of care' were legally and politically crafted but does not provide specifics.
The law, known as the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, made it a felony for medical providers to prescribe puberty blockers or hormones to transgender minors, carrying a potential prison sentence of up to 10 years. The law did not ban the use of puberty blockers to treat precocious puberty in cisgender children.
It also prohibited gender-affirming surgeries for individuals under 19, though health care providers have repeatedly testified such surgeries are not performed on minors.
The legislation led to immediate legal action after being signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey in April 2022. Initially, a federal judge blocked the ban on medications, citing interference with parental rights and a lack of evidence demonstrating harm from the treatments. But that decision was overturned in August 2023 by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which stated that there was no fundamental right to gender-affirming care.
U.S. Circuit Judge Barbara Lagoa, writing for the majority, cited the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which struck down federal abortion protections and ruled that abortion was not a right 'deeply rooted in the nation's history and tradition.' Lagoa wrote that gender-affirming care had no historic grounding in the law.
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