11th Circuit allows Alabama to enforce its ban on gender-affirming care for minors

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A divided federal appeals court has refused to reconsider a decision allowing Alabama to enforce its ban on treating transgender minors with puberty blockers and hormones.

In a decision released Wednesday night, a majority of judges on the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals declined a request by families with transgender children for the full court to reconsider a three-judge panel’s decision to let the law go into effect.

The Alabama law makes it a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison to treat people under 19 with puberty blockers or hormones to help affirm their gender identity. The 11th Circuit in January allowed Alabama to begin enforcing the law.

The court has “correctly allowed Alabama to safeguard the physical and psychological well-being of its minors,” U.S. Circuit Judge Barbara Lagoa wrote.

Four of the 11 judges who heard the case dissented.

“The panel opinion is wrong and dangerous. Make no mistake: while the panel opinion continues in force, no modern medical treatment is safe from a state’s misguided decision to outlaw it, almost regardless of the state’s reason,” U.S. Circuit Judge Robin S. Rosenbaum wrote.

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