On Friday, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall (R) announced that the plaintiffs who had recently challenged Alabama’s Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act simultaneously dropped their legal challenges to the law.
The new state law bans dosing children with massive amounts of the other gender’s sex hormones, puberty blockers and surgeries to alter one’s gender identity, including mastectomies and castrations.
“On April 8, 2022, Alabama enacted the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act to protect children from experimental medical interventions that have no proven benefits and carry with them substantial risk of long-term irreversible harm,” said Marshall. “The law reflects a growing international consensus that children suffering from gender dysphoria should not be receiving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries. Children who take these drugs risk permanent infertility, loss of sexual function, increased risk of heart attack and stroke, bone-density problems, risk of altered brain development and psycho-social harms from delayed puberty. Conversely, the majority of children who experience dysphoria will have it resolve naturally by adulthood, if not subjected to the interventions above.”
Following Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey’s (R) signing of the landmark legislation, Alabama’s law was challenged almost immediately by a fleet of activist groups that collectively control billions of dollars. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), and Human Rights Campaign, along with law firms King & Spalding and Lightfoot, Franklin & White, filed one suit. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Lambda Legal, Transgender Law Center, and Cooley LLP launched another, arguing that immediate relief was needed for their clients before the law takes effect next month.
“Despite those demands for immediate judicial intervention, last night, the Plaintiffs in both cases voluntarily and simultaneously dismissed their lawsuits,” Marshall said. “I’m grateful for the work my team has done to defend this important law and the children it defends.”
The Walker Plaintiffs’ and the Ladinsky Plaintiffs' notice of dismissal can both be read online.
Prior to the plaintiff’s dismissal, 1819 News spoke with Alabama Center for Law and Liberty President Matt Clark.
“It is far from certain that the ACLU's case will succeed,” Clark told 1819 News. “The Eleventh Circuit has interpreted the Equal Protection Clause to give some level of protection to gender-nonconforming behavior. But this is a different matter altogether. Instead of asserting a right to behave like the opposite sex, the ACLU wants to create a right to become the opposite sex. There is no precedent on point for that, so the ACLU will have an uphill climb.”
The new law in no way limits what procedures a consenting adult can have a physician perform on their bodies.
To connect with the author of this story, or to comment, email brandon.moseley@1819News.com.
