Alabama law banning transgender medication challenged in two lawsuits

Families with transgender teens sued the state of Alabama in federal court on Monday to overturn a law that makes it a crime for doctors to treat trans youth under 19 with puberty blockers or hormones to help affirm their gender identity.

The two lawsuits — one on behalf of two families and another on behalf of two families and the physicians who treat their children — pose legal challenges to legislation signed into law Friday by Republican Governor Kay Ivey.

"Transgender youth are a part of Alabama, and they deserve the same privacy, access to treatment, and data-driven health care from trained medical professionals as any other Alabamian," Tish Gotell Faulks, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, said in a statement. Faulks added that lawmakers are using children as, "political pawns for their reelection campaigns." Ivey and legislators face primaries next month.