Plaintiffs challenging Alabama’s ban on transgender medicine plan new case
2 min read
Plaintiffs in lawsuits challenging Alabama’s law criminalizing medical treatment for transgender youth plan to file a new lawsuit after withdrawing two actions on Friday.
Melody Eagan, an attorney with Birmingham-based Lightfoot, Franklin and White, which represented two families and two physicians in a lawsuit titled Ladinsky v. Ivey, wrote in an email Monday they planned to “file a new case in the immediate future” against SB 184. Gov. Kay Ivey signed the law on April 8; it will take effect in early May.
“We promptly filed a lawsuit on behalf of two families and two doctors on the day Governor Ivey signed the bill,” Eagan wrote. “After filing that case, we are hearing from numerous Alabama families, including patients facing loss of critical medical care and parents facing potential criminal penalties. We also are hearing from numerous medical providers and others who care for transgender youth.”
Messages seeking comment were sent on Monday to attorneys in Walker v. Marshall, the other lawsuit.
The law, which will go into effect in early May, subjects doctors who prescribe puberty blockers and hormones to transgender youth to a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The law also forbids public and private school personnel from withholding information about a student’s confusion over their gender identity. SB 184 also bans genital surgeries (except circumcisions) on minors. Health professionals have said surgeons do not perform those procedures on youth in Alabama.
More:Families, doctors file suit against Alabama’s transgender medicine ban
Supporters of the laws said they were concerned about the long-term impacts of the drugs on minors. Families with transgender youth and physicians who work with them said the treatments are given only after extensive consultation between doctors and parents, and that access to the treatments is critical to their children’s well-being.
Ladinsky v. Ivey had been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama in Birmingham. Walker v. Marshall had been filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama in Montgomery. Attorneys for the plaintiffs in Walker v. Marshall had filed a motion to have the case assigned to U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson.
The state accused the plaintiffs of “judge-shopping” and moved to have the case sent to the U.S. Northern District, which U.S. District Judge Emily C. Marks ordered on Friday. The plaintiffs’ attorneys withdrew their suits shortly after.
Contact Montgomery Advertiser reporter Brian Lyman at 334-240-0185 or [email protected].
https://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/2022/04/18/plaintiffs-challenging-alabama-ban-transgender-medicine-plan-new-case-sb-184-kay-ivey-lawsuit/7355576001/
