Detransitioners would get more time to sue doctors for body mutilation under new Alabama bill
An Alabama lawmaker is looking to grant detransitioners more time to sue the doctors and providers who provided them with genital-mutilating surgeries and puberty-blocking drugs as minors.
As the U.S. Supreme Court this week weighs a Tennessee law prohibiting sex-change surgeries and hormone drugs for minors, a bill is set to be proposed in Alabama by Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, that would extend the statute of limitations for medical malpractice suits, typically two years in Alabama.
Under the legislation, an individual who underwent so-called "gender-affirming care" would have 15 years after turning 19 to file a lawsuit, as the Alabama Daily News reported Sunday.
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At the time of reporting, the bill has yet to be pre-filed.
"The crux of the bill is it allows the child who during their minor years receives some kind of gender realignment or change to sue the doctors and counselors that advised them to do so," Orr told the outlet. "It would hold the adults responsible for pushing children down this road."
Under the proposed legislation, providers could defend themselves against a lawsuit if they at least consult two medical professionals, one being a mental health specialist, to determine that advising the minor to transition was the only way to help them.
In addition, parents and guardians would need to be provided with an 800-word notice warning them about the side effects of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and sex-change surgeries, according to the report.
"There are individuals who underwent gender transition treatments as minors and later regretted that decision and the physical harm that these treatments caused, and the total percentage of people who experience this regret is unknown," the document states. "Some estimate that the rate is below two percent, but that estimate is based on studies done on adults who transitioned as adults or on minors who transitioned under highly restrictive and controlled conditions."
Orr warned against young people making such a life-changing decision, calling it "disturbing" that the current culture would allow a child to make what is often an irreversible choice.
Alabama is among around two dozen states that have already taken steps to ban body-altering surgeries for children suffering from gender dysphoria. In 2022, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed the "Vulnerable Child Protection Act" and House Bill 322.
The former banned prescribing puberty-blocking drugs or hormones for children younger than 19, and it also included penalties for providers who perform genital mutilation surgeries on minors.
While the state's enactment of laws restricting so-called "gender-affirming care" was met with legal challenges, the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals declined to reconsider a decision allowing Alabama to enforce the ban.
As for Orr's legislation, the Republican senator told Alabama Daily News that he drafted the bill more than a year ago. The lawmaker said that he wanted to wait until the legal challenges against Alabama's ban on sex-change surgeries and body-altering drugs came to a conclusion.
While the Republican lawmaker noted that the bill would provide legal recourse to detransitioners, he still hopes that the legislation would never prove necessary.
"I hope you never have a child have their life severely affected and at age 27 they wake up and realize how wrong it all was when they were making decisions 10 or 12 years before," he said.
The news about the trans-related bill proposed for Alabama's 2025 legislative session comes as the Supreme Court prepares to weigh in on a Tennessee law banning sex change surgeries and puberty-blocking drugs for minors with gender dysphoria. The court is set to convene on Wednesday to hear arguments for the case.
Tennessee passed the ban in March 2023, with the legislation finding that the "state has a legitimate, substantial, and compelling interest in protecting minors from physical and emotional harm." The American Civil Liberties Union, a progressive legal group, is helping to represent the families suing Tennessee over the law.
Samantha Kamman is a reporter for The Christian Post. She can be reached at: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter: @Samantha_Kamman
