Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall announced on Thursday a legal victory for the state in Boe v. Marshall following the plaintiffs’ decision to drop their challenge to Alabama’s Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, which prohibits experimental sex-change procedures for minors.
According to Marshall, the dismissal marks a total and historic win for the State of Alabama.
“Three years ago, multiple sets of plaintiffs, represented by the ACLU, SPLC, and some of the nation’s largest law firms, filed suit against Alabama to challenge our law protecting vulnerable kids from life-altering sex-change procedures,” Marshall said. “We fought back. We defeated a preliminary injunction and conducted court-ordered discovery into the so-called ‘standards of care’ that these groups claimed were evidence-based. What we found was devastating to the plaintiffs’ challenge: a medical, legal, and political scandal that will be studied for decades. Given the evidence we uncovered, it is no surprise the plaintiffs abandoned their challenge.”
Marshall continued, “We uncovered the truth. We exposed the scandal. We won. Alabama led the way, and now all families are safer for it.”
Discovery in the case revealed that key medical organizations misled parents, promoted unproven treatments as settled science, and ignored growing international concern over the use of sex-change procedures to treat gender dysphoria in minors. Contrary to their public claims, these groups had little reliable evidence to support their recommended interventions. Additionally, Alabama’s investigation uncovered internal communications showing that the “standards of care” were crafted with input from lawyers and activists to win lawsuits and influence policy decisions, even if those goals were at odds with the scientific evidence.
"The Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act makes it a felony for doctors to provide minors with puberty blockers, cross-sex hormone treatments or surgeries for the purpose of gender transition," Marshall's office said in a release. "The Act ensures that children are not rushed into permanent decisions and that parents are empowered to provide real care, not irreversible harm. The law was enacted in April 2022 and preliminarily enjoined by a federal district court that May. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit vacated the injunction in August 2023, opening the door for Alabama to enforce its law."
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