A bill recently approved by the Alabama Senate to protect minors from gender-altering medical procedures and drugs has drawn the ire of a major left-wing national news outlet.
The “Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act,” sponsored by State Sens. Shay Shelnutt (R-Trussville) and Gerald Allen (R-Tuscaloosa), passed the legislature’s upper chamber earlier this month by a vote of 24-6.
If enacted, the bill would “prohibit the performance of a medical procedure or the prescription of medication, upon or to a minor child, that is intended to alter the minor child’s gender or delay puberty.”
Shelnutt slammed a report published on Thursday, authored by Jo Yurcaba of NBC Out, a reporter for NBC News’ LGBTQ-centric digital section. Yurcaba described the bill as being “part of a national trend over the past several years of states’ shifting their focus from limiting gay rights to limiting trans rights.”
Shelnutt dismissed the notion that his bill was drafted in an effort to curb the rights of transgender people. Instead, the senator advised that the bill was crafted to shield children from being subjected to medical procedures and drugs that could hold life-long consequences.
“The bill is to protect minors from life-altering drugs and surgeries,” Shelnutt told Yellowhammer News. “The far-left seems to think it is OK to use kids for experiments. It is not OK to use children as experiments. The science shows that most children that are going through gender identity issues will grow out of it if allowed to go through puberty.”
In his bill, Shelnutt outlines the basic fundamentals of biology.
“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 states.
Shelnutt’s legislation goes on to note that children “may experience discordance between their sex and identity” prior to puberty. Once having gone through puberty, the bill adds, a “substantial majority” of children will grow to “have an identity that aligns with their sex.”
According to Shelnutt, medical professionals he has consulted with warn of the “irreversible” actions of what some say is akin to a form of chemical castration.
“Children should be protected from drugs and surgeries that would have irreversible consequences and a create life-long dependency on drugs,” added Shelnutt. “Doctors and rational people all agree that no child should be making life altering decisions especially when they are struggling with puberty.”
Yurcaba’s NBC Out piece joins a litany of other national left-wing outlets in providing favorable news reporting for those that subscribe to the view that children should be allowed to partake in gender-altering medical procedures.
Alongside receiving criticism from leftist media, Shelnutt’s bill is reportedly expected to be met with legal challenges from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the National Center for Lesbian Rights.
The bill currently sits in the Republican-dominated Alabama House of Representatives, where, if it is met approval, it will head to Gov. Kay Ivey’s desk for signature.
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
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