The U.S. Justice Department announced on Friday that it is filing a complaint against Alabama’s new law banning gender-transition procedures for minors.
The complaint claims that the law violates the equal-protection clause of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.
The bill “discriminates against transgender youth by denying them access to certain forms of medically necessary care,” the DOJ said in a press release. “It further discriminates against transgender youth by barring them from accessing particular procedures while allowing non-transgender minors to access the same or similar procedures.”
Alabama governor Kay Ivey signed the law in early April, banning doctors from providing hormone therapy, puberty blockers, or gender-transition surgery to minors. A doctor found guilty of breaking the law could face up to ten years in prison.
A minor is any resident under 19 years of age, according to Alabama law.
“I believe very strongly that if the Good Lord made you a boy, you are a boy, and if he made you a girl, you are a girl,” Ivey said in a statement at the time. “We should especially protect our children from these radical, life-altering drugs and surgeries when they are at such a vulnerable stage in life.”
The law faces a separate challenge from four families with transgender children as well as two doctors.
Arkansas lawmakers passed a bill in 2021 banning gender-transition procedures for minors, overriding Republican governor Asa Hutchinson’s veto. That law was subsequently blocked from taking effect.