This Is Why You Should Live In Desert Hot Springs, California, And Not Anywhere In Alabama

Alabama Uses SCOTUS Decision to Go After Gender-Affirming Care for All

BY ALEX COOPER JUNE 30 2022 10:00 PM EDT

Less than a week after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, Alabama has used the ruling in an attempt to prohibit gender-affirming health care to trans youth and to trans adults.

Affirming fears from LGBTQ+ rights groups about what the decision could mean for queer rights, the state is seeking to lift a federal court’s injunction that blocked an April law that made providing puberty blockers or hormones to youth a felony offense. Those found guilty of doing so could be punished with up to 10 years in prison.

Alabama’s attorney general’s office filed a brief Monday that made similar arguments found in the SCOUTS decision, according to the Associated Press. Namely, the state argues that gender-affirming care isn’t “deeply rooted in our history or traditions,” which is directly taken from the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization ruling on abortion rights.

Because it is not “rooted” in U.S. history, Alabama claims it can ban the treatments. In the brief, the state also argues for a ban not only on gender-affirming care to youth, but to transgender adults as well.