The Biden administration and liberal legal groups are gearing up to battle red state laws that prohibit children from receiving transgender hormone treatment.
Gov. Kay Ivey (R.) signed a bill into law last week that makes Alabama the third state to ban children from receiving hormone therapy and puberty blockers. The legislation, however, is already in jeopardy. The Biden Justice Department in March warned state attorneys general against enforcing hormone-treatment bans for minors, saying they run afoul of federal anti-discrimination laws. Liberal legal groups including the American Civil Liberties Union promised this week to "use the full force of the law" to challenge the Alabama legislation in court—a move that blocked a similar law in Arkansas last year.
The White House this week slammed the Alabama law, with press secretary Jen Psaki saying during a press conference that hormone therapy for minors is "lifesaving health care." Steve Marshall, the Republican attorney general of Alabama, said his state is prepared to stand up to liberal groups' legal challenges and White House opposition, which he called "predictable and of very little interest to Alabamians."
"It is undoubtedly difficult for the Biden administration, including the Department of Justice, to accept that Alabama is a sovereign state," Marshall told the Washington Free Beacon. "We're prepared to act like it."
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