Biden Justice Dept. challenges Alabama law banning puberty blockers for gender-confused youth

By Heather Clark - Posted at Christian News Network:

WASHINGTON — Calling the procedures “medically necessary,” the U.S. Justice Department has filed an intervention to an existing lawsuit challenging an Alabama law that prohibits the use of puberty blockers and opposite-sex hormones on “transgender” youth, as well as operations removing healthy body parts.

“This lawsuit challenges a state statute that denies necessary medical care to children based solely on who they are,” the complaint states. “[The ban] discriminates on the basis of both sex and transgender status in violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.”

Senate Bill (S.B.) 184, also known as the Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, was signed into law by Gov. Kay Ivey on April 8. It defines sex as “the biological state of being female or male, based on sex organs, chromosomes, and endogenous hormone profiles, … genetically encoded into a person at the moment of conception, [which] … cannot be changed.”

The bill, presented in the legislature earlier this year by Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, and Rep. Wes Allen, R-Troy, states that while some may experience psychological distress due to a discordance between their biological sex and their inclinations, the inner turmoil is subject to change. It expresses concern over the lifelong effects of puberty blockers and other such “treatments” on minors.

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