The Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act was signed by Gov. Kay Ivey in April 2022. The law makes it a felony for doctors to prescribe puberty blockers and hormones to children under age 19.
Alabama is one of multiple states that have recently pushed or passed laws that protect children and adolescents from the off-label use of prescription drugs that suppress the hormones released during puberty and the drugs that mimic hormones released in the opposite sex during puberty. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, “Four states (Alabama, Arkansas, Texas, and Arizona) have recently enacted such restrictions (though the AL, AR, and TX laws all have been temporarily blocked by court rulings) and in 2022, 15 states are considering 25 similar pieces of legislation.”
“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.”
This is the message that Chris Elston, a Canadian activist known as “Billboard Chris,” brought to Alabama during a recent trip. Elston has traveled across North America wearing signs that spark conversation about the harms of gender ideology and gender transition treatments for children and teens. Elston describes his approach as simple: peacefully and calmly standing where he can be seen and having conversations with passersby. His main message is, “Children cannot consent to puberty blockers.”
Elston told Alabama Today, “The puberty blockers being given to children have never had FDA approval for this use, have never had a single clinical study, and, combined with cross-sex hormones, are sterilizing children, about half of whom are on the autism spectrum. Many would just grow up to be gay. All of these children have some comorbidity going on, but the practice today is to simply affirm a child’s self-diagnosis as being gender dysphoric and start them immediately on puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.”
Lupron, the usual puberty blocker, is a cancer drug approved for prostate cancer, endometriosis, and uterine fibroids, and it is the exact same drug used in the past to chemically castrate pedophiles.”
This is a point echoed in Alabama’s State House during the passage of the bill, “This is about protecting children because there’s a very high probability that this child will be misdiagnosed and will be entered into an irreversible medical intervention,” said Dr. Patrick Lappert, who spoke during the hearing in February.
U.S. District Judge Liles Burke issued a preliminary injunction to stop the state from enforcing the medication ban, which took effect May 8, while a lawsuit goes forward. The ruling was a victory for families and advocacy groups who challenged the first-of-its-kind law as an illegal intrusion into family and medical decisions. Ivey referred to the ruling as a “temporary legal roadblock.” Alabama’s state attorney general indicated he will appeal.
Just days after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states can prohibit abortion, Alabama seized on the decision to argue that the state should also be able to ban gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender youths.
Alabama attorney general’s office argued that gender transition treatments are not “deeply rooted in our history or traditions,” and thus, the state has the authority to ban them.
Elston says he hopes they will, “Tens of thousands of children are having their bodies irreversibly harmed. Girls as young as 12 have had their breasts cut off. Boys’ future adult sexual function is being destroyed, and these children will never be able to have families of their own. What child can possibly give informed consent to this?”
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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by PostX News and is published from a syndicated feed.)
