Seventeen Republican-led states have backed Arkansas‘s decision to ban “experimental” transgender procedures for minors, according to a statement from the Alabama Attorney General’s Office.
Arkansas became the first state in the nation earlier this year to outlaw procedures by healthcare workers providing puberty blockers and gender affirmation surgeries to minors. On Wednesday, 17 GOP-led states, helmed by Alabama‘s Attorney General Steve Marshall, delivered an amicus brief in support of Arkansas’s measure, voicing their concern with the surgeries.
“We are concerned about the surge in recent years of children suffering from gender dysphoria and other forms of gender-related psychological distress,” the brief said.
ARKANSAS LAWMAKERS OVERRIDE GOVERNOR AND ENACT BAN ON SEX-CHANGE SURGERY AND TREATMENT FOR CHILDREN
“With the stakes so high, the harms so great, and the known benefits so paltry, the Arkansas legislature did not have to embrace an experimental path in lieu of the one that has served the medical profession so well for so long: First, do no harm,” it later added.
Alabama’s amicus brief was backed by attorneys general from Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.
The brief follows a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in May, which argued that forcing children to undergo puberty as their “assigned” sex at birth puts them at risk of “extreme distress,” the ACLU wrote.
“Puberty delaying treatment, which pauses puberty so that young people can have time and space to confirm who they are without the permanent physical changes of puberty, is part of the well-established standards of care for treating many transgender youth,” the ACLU argued in May on behalf of “four families with transgender children, along with two doctors who provide this care.”
The attorneys general described transgender treatment on minors as “experimental,” referring to countries including Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom, which also deem transition procedures as such, according to the brief.
Marshall argued that “children cannot weigh long-term risks as adults do because their brains are still developing and they lack life experience.”
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Supporters of transgender treatment for children say this type of care allows young people to grow into their chosen identities without having to undergo the natural occurrences of puberty, such as facial hair for males and breasts for females.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of some puberty blockers for children, including injections such as Lupron, which contains leuprolide acetate, and rod inserts like histrelin acetate.
The ACLU did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
