A proposed law in the upcoming 2025 session of the Alabama Legislature would give people 15 years to sue medical providers over the gender-transforming procedures they received as minors.
“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,” Sen. Arthur Orr, R-Decatur, told Alabama Daily News. “It would hold the adults responsible for pushing children down this road.”
The Alabama Legislature and Gov. Kay Ivey in 2022 made it a felony for a doctor to prescribe puberty blockers or hormones to aid in the gender transition of anyone under age 19. Violating the law is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The law also prohibits gender transition surgeries, though doctors told lawmakers in public hearings those are generally not done on minors.
In January, the 11th Circuit allowed Alabama to begin enforcing the law.
Orr said that the law will likely be repeatedly challenged and if it’s ever struck down, his new legislation would give minors legal recourse later. Most medical-related lawsuits have a statute of limitations of two years. Orr’s bill would extend that to 15 years after the minor turned 19.
“It would be very difficult to attack a mere extension of the statute of limitations for bringing a lawsuit against a provider that facilitated and pushed a child (toward a transformation procedure or care),” Orr said.
Orr said he’s concerned about teens making such permanent decisions.
“It is disturbing that you would allow a child to make a life-changing decision that is irreversible in most cases,” Orr said.
The bill has not yet been pre-filed. It will apply to surgeries and prescribed drug regimens. It would not apply to procedures performed on people born with medically verifiable disorders of sex development or procedures undertaken because the minor suffers from a physical disorder or physical injury.
The legislation also says providers could have a defense against a lawsuit if they take several actions during care, including monitoring for two years a minor’s perceived gender or perceived sex that was “invariably inconsistent with the minor’s biological sex” and have at least two health care providers, including at least one mental health professional, certify that the gender transition procedure was the only way to treat a mental health concern.
Minors and their guardians would also have to be provided a nearly 800-word notice from the legislation that includes warnings about puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgical procedures.
“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,” it says. “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 said he drafted this bill more than a year ago but waited to file it so that it would not cause confusion with the legal challenges surrounding the 2022 ban on transgender treatments for minors. He said he’s been told by attorneys that is not a concern now.
Orr’s bill is similar to one Arkansas enacted in 2023.
The Arkansas Advocate reported that social workers, parents of transgender children and other opponents of the bill said that not only do transgender people rarely regret transitioning, but also gender-affirming health care is only administered to minors after extensive mental health care and discussion about the risks and benefits of medical procedures.
Orr said if his bill becomes law, he hopes it will never be needed.
“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 legislative session begins Feb. 4.