The so-called “Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act” was passed by the Alabama’s House of Representatives on April 7th, putting transgender youth at risk of losing lifesaving healthcare from state-sanctioned violence.

If Republican Governor Kay Ivey signs the bill into law a collection of civil rights groups including The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal, and Transgender Law Center have announced that they will sue the state of Alabama.

“If passed and signed into law, Alabama will have the most deadly, sweeping, and hostile law targeting transgender people in the country. The way to reduce harm to trans youth is to provide them with gender-affirming health care where it is medically indicated. This bill takes that lifesaving treatment option off the table and makes it a felony,” Chase Strangio, deputy director for Trans Justice ACLU, said in a statement.

Alabama’s bill threatens 10 years of imprisonment onto doctors providing gender-affirming care, and would make schools unsafe spaces for trans youth, by requiring staff to ‘out’ students to parents who could be non-supportive. It medicalizes transness and strip’s a child’s autonomy by falsley claiming that the child will ‘grow’ out of being transgender.

“What we are seeing in the state of Alabama is another misguided attempt to control the lives of transgender people… Threatening providers with prison time or fines as a result of their dedication to their patients is ruthless. Above all, our goal is to ensure that trans youth become trans adults, and bills like this are antithetical to trans people thriving,” Lynly Egyes, legal director of the Transgender Law Center, said in a statement.

More than half of trans children were 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 in transgender and nonbinary youth.

“Moving forward with this bill will be deadly for trans youth, push doctors out of a state that has a shortage of medical providers, hurt Alabama’s economy, and subject the state to costly litigation,” Strangio added.

Trans folks have repeatedly emphasized how critically lifesaving gender-affirming care is: https://bit.ly/33K8DK9