In line with the 30 copy-paste bills by Republicans attempting to ban lifesaving gender-affirming healthcare across the country, Alabama’s law follows the common theme of medicalizing transness by conflating being trans with a public health crisis that children need to be ‘saved’ from.

The “wait and see” approach recommended by the bills has devastating impacts: “If allowed to go into effect, the felony health care ban will have dire physical, emotional, and psychological consequences for transgender youth, who will be kept from receiving necessary medical care. It will render parents powerless to help and make medical decisions for their own adolescent children, forcing them to watch as their children suffer from the extreme distress caused by gender dysphoria. It will force medical professionals to violate the tenets of their profession and abandon their patients,” ACLU’s lawsuit states.

It is heartbreaking to know how Republicans are practicing this state of violence against transgender youth: more than half of trans and nonbinary youth are at risk of suicide this past year, and access to gender-affirming care is linked to being at lower risk of attempting suicide by nearly 40 percent.

Plaintiff Jeffrey White, testified against this law in February, advocating for his daughter C.W., who’s healthcare is being targeted by this bill: “This bill is not about compassion or protection. It is a violation and subjugation of who my daughter is. My daughter is much like her peers. She loves to draw, hang out with her cats, and play games.. She is one of the kindest and most creative people I am privileged to know. Her success is possible because the treatment she receives allows her to focus on having a normal childhood. This bill forces her onto a difficult path rife with risk and despair. The light shining brightly in her eyes will dim, as all she cares about is overtaken by a formerly treatable incongruence that you will have rendered intractable. The bill renders us powerless by violating our rights as parents to make medical decisions about our child. Vote no on this extremist bill before it kills someone.”