The Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protecting Act went into effect in Alabama in April but, a month later, was partially blocked by a federal judge.
The law makes it a felony to prescribe or administer gender-affirming medication, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormone treatments, to minors. It also outlaws gender-affirming surgeries on minors.
While the ban on transgender surgeries on minors is still in place, a federal judge blocked the part of the law banning the medication.
One of the lawmakers who was instrumental in getting the law passed at the time is still hopeful that the state will ultimately prevail in court in defending the legislation.
Secretary of State-elect Wes Allen discussed the importance of the issue during a recent appearance on WVNN’s “The Yaffee Program.”
“We thought it was important to be able to make sure these kids were able to know the truth and to make sure they weren’t permanently harming their bodies,” Allen said.
The former state representative argued against those who say puberty blockers don’t have any negative effects on children.
“One thing we always heard is these things are reversible, there’s no long-term effects,” he said. “Well the science is not settled on that. And we made our case for three years … and we wanted to get this bill passed to protect our children.”
Allen reiterated the law is only about protecting children.
“It doesn’t affect adults, it only affects minors,” he emphasized, “and one thing we saw back in 2019 and 2020 was this transgender issue coming to the forefront and especially the minors who were dealing with it, and we wanted to make sure that our minors and our kids were protected from these drugs, these very powerful medications that are not FDA approved to be used in such a way to block puberty, and also the cross-sex hormones, which are the next step after the puberty blockers, and of course after the cross sex hormones comes the surgeries.”
Yaffee is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts “The Yaffee Program” weekdays 9-11 a.m. on WVNN. You can follow him on Twitter @Yaffee
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