Alabama Lawmakers Pass Bill Criminalizing Sex Change Surgeries, Puberty Blockers For Minors

The Republican-dominated Alabama State Legislature passed a child-protection bill on Thursday that would criminalize performing sex change surgeries and prescribing puberty blockers or hormone therapies for minors.

The state House passed the Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act 66-28 on the last day of the legislative session. The legislation, also called SB184, will go to Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk for approval. Ivey has not said whether she will sign the bill into law, though she passed a bill banning transgender athletes from playing in girls’ K-12 sports last year, Reuters reported.

The bill would make performing a sex change surgery on a minor or prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapies a felony punishable with up to ten years in prison. According to Politico, Alabama would be the third state to pass a bill banning gender reassignment surgeries for minors and the first state to criminalize “gender affirming healthcare” for children. The law would also ban nurses, counselors, teachers, principals, or other administrative officials at public and private schools from withholding or coercing minors to withhold information from their parents or legal guardians about a perception that their birth sex does not align with how they perceive themselves.

Leftwing corporate and local media outlets have already begun to characterize the bill as an attempt to deny children who believe they are transgender from accessing “gender affirming care.” However, “gender affirming care,” is really just a far-left euphemism intended to make the mutilation of children sound like a compassionate course of action. 

The bill addresses — in great detail — the types of gruesome and irreversible procedures needed to “change” a child’s sex, as well as the possible damage various medications could do to a child’s development.

The bill reads:

For minors who are placed on puberty blockers that inhibit their bodies from experiencing the natural process of sexual development, the overwhelming majority will continue down a path toward cross-sex hormones and cosmetic  surgery. This unproven, poorly studied series of interventions results in numerous harmful effects for minors, as well as risks of effects simply unknown due to the new and experimental nature of these interventions. Among the known harms from puberty blockers is diminished bone density; the full effect of puberty blockers on brain development and cognition are yet unknown, though reason for concern is now present. There is no research on the long-term risks to minors of persistent exposure to puberty  blockers.

Legislators added that the administration of cross-sex hormones “comes with increased risks of cardiovascular disease, thromboembolic  stroke, asthma, COPD, and cancer.”

“Puberty blockers prevent gonadal maturation and thus render patients taking these drugs infertile. Introducing cross-sex hormones to children with immature gonads as a direct result of pubertal blockade is expected to cause irreversible sterility,” the bill continues.
Lawmakers noted that sterilization is also “permanent for those who undergo surgery to remove reproductive organs…”

“…And such persons are likely to suffer through a lifetime of complications from the surgery, infections, and other difficulties requiring yet more medical intervention. Several studies demonstrate that hormonal and surgical interventions often do not resolve the underlying psychological issues affecting the individual,” according to the bill. “For example, individuals who undergo cross-sex cosmetic surgical procedures have been found to suffer from elevated mortality rates higher than the general population. They experience significantly higher rates of substance abuse, depression, and psychiatric hospitalizations.”

The bill states that minors and “often their parents” are “unable to comprehend and fully appreciate the risk and life implications” of using puberty blockers, hormone therapies, or gender reassignment surgeries. 

“For these reasons, the decision to pursue a course of hormonal and surgical interventions to address a discordance between the individual’s sex and sense of identity should not be presented to or determined for minors who are incapable of comprehending the negative implications and life-course difficulties attending to these interventions,” the bill explains. 

The legislation also clearly defines sex as a “biological state of being female or male…” 

“The sex of a person is the biological state of being female or male, based on sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous hormone profiles, and is genetically encoded into a person at the moment of conception, and it cannot be changed,” the bill reads. 

The legislation would go into effect 30 days following its passage.

The Alabama Senate also passed a bill that would require students in K-12 public schools to use multiple occupancy restrooms and changing areas according to their “biological sex.” 

“An amendment was attached to the bill, which now has to go back to the House for a vote, prohibiting classroom discussion on sexual orientation or gender identity in certain grades,” according to Reuters.

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on Twitter.