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Alabama Governor Kay IveyGovernor Kay Ivey/YouTube

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (LifeSiteNews) – A new ban on “gender transitions” for children took effect in Alabama on Sunday, prompting medical providers across the state to stop prescribing experimental transgender drugs to kids.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey last month signed the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act (VCCPA), which outlaws “prescribing or administering” hormones and puberty blockers to gender-confused minors under age 19.

The law also bans sterilizing “sex change” surgeries and other procedures to remove “healthy or non-diseased body part[s] or tissue” of a child. People who violate the measure can face felony charges and up to 10 years in prison.

“If the Good Lord made you a boy, you’re a boy. If He made you a girl, you’re a girl,” Gov. Ivey tweeted Monday. “It’s Alabama common sense.”

After the law came into force, Children’s of Alabama, the state’s top children’s hospital, told AL.com that it will cease providing hormone drugs to minors. “Patients who are affected by the Alabama Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act have been made aware of the impact of the law,” said the hospital, which includes a “gender clinic.”

University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Hospital, which also houses a gender clinic, likewise affirmed that it will “comply with the law.”

In the last two weeks, the UAB gender clinic has contacted “about 100 recent patients” to get them prescriptions to keep using puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones into next year, though some pharmacies have reportedly declined to fill them, according to AL.com.

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U.S. District Judge Liles Burke, a Trump appointee, did not rule on a request to block enforcement of the VCCPA before it took effect, and a decision is expected later this week.

Several left-wing activist organizations, including the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Human Rights Campaign, have filed suit against Alabama on behalf of two doctors and at least four gender-confused minors and their parents. The Biden Department of Justice has since joined the lawsuit.

“The science and common sense are on Alabama’s side. We will win this fight to protect our children,” said Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall last week.

Health risks, shaky science

Alabama is among a growing list of Republican-led states that have taken action against pediatric “gender transitions” in recent years. In April 2021, Arkansas approved a similar ban on transgender drugs and surgeries for kids, but an Obama-appointed judge temporarily blocked it from coming into effect last summer.

Tennessee has also restricted hormone drugs for prepubescent children, and Arizona last month outlawed underage “sex change” surgeries. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott recently directed state agencies to investigate “any reported instances” of Texas kids undergoing “abusive gender-transitioning procedures.”

Puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones are both linked to serious and potentially life-threatening side effects, including cardiovascular diseases, and neither have been approved by the FDA for gender dysphoria or studied in controlled clinical trials with gender-confused minors.

Sweden in February effectively banned the drugs for children with gender dysphoria, citing health risks and uncertain science. Finland has issued similar guidelines.

Studies show that as few as two percent of boys and 10 percent of girls with gender dysphoria experience the condition after puberty, according to the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

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