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State Rep. Susan DuBose, R-Hoover, announced Monday that she intends to file legislation raising Alabama’s age of medical majority to 18.
Under current law, Alabamians can make their own medical decisions beginning at age 14.
“I found that to be just crazy,” DuBose said. “We’re the lowest age of any state in the nation.”
DuBose said she talked with the state’s legal team who couldn’t find a reason for that, but said the law goes back to at least the 70s.
The age and situations at which minors can consent to certain medical procedures varies by state. A few other states have ages set at 14-16. Some of those states couple other requirements with that age standard, such as being emancipated, living separately from the parents or married. Some states set no age and instead rely solely on situational context such as those.
The announcement came as part of the “Take Back Alabama” town hall hosted by Moms for Liberty Alabama, Clean Up Alabama and LOCAL. The groups announced Monday that they would be forming a coalition called Protecting Alabama’s Children to formally combine forces as the groups generally push for the same legislation.
The town hall featured DuBose, State Rep. Mack Butler, R-Rainbow City, and Katherine Robertson, chief counsel for Attorney General Steve Marshall. The panel was emceed by Emily Jones of Moms for Liberty and Allison Sinclair of LOCAL.
Butler said during the town hall that he intends to bring back his bill banning discussion or instruction of gender ideology and sexual orientation through 12th grade. Butler tried to pass the legislation last session and negotiated down to ending the prohibition at eighth grade. He told attendees Monday he would be trying again for K-12 with a carveout for health classes, which is what the State Board of Education had concerns about with the higher grades.
“They’re always coming after the children like lambs to the slaughter,” Butler said. “Drag queens always want to perform for the children.”
In addition to her bill to raise the age of medical majority, DuBose said she would be bringing back her bill defining “sex-based terms” such as man and woman, mother and father. She also announced a bill to prevent transgender individuals from being in single-gender taxpayer-funded spaces including college dorm rooms or sleeping areas on overnight field trips.
There was much discussion over mental health counselors in state schools and how they might talk about gender identity and sexual orientation to children.
Robertson said parents now have to opt in to allow their child to access those mental health services, although there are still certain ways in which other mental health resources could be mandatory for all students as part if the curriculum that does not involve the counselors.
Jones said she takes her child out of school every other week to keep them from participating in a group counseling session that promotes “social-emotional learning.”
While these groups have been heavily involved in the push against library books they find inappropriate, none of the present lawmakers are carrying the bill to charge librarians with misdemeanors and there was little discussion on that front.
Butler said it sometimes feels like “we the people are at war with the federal government,” stating falsely that the federal government would not allow Elon Musk’s Starlink internet devices to be provided to hurricane victims.
Butler also said Alabama ought to flout a federal court decision requiring the reversal of a program by Secretary of State Wes Allen to remove more than 3,000 voters from the rolls within 90 days of the election.
“They’re forcing us to add back illegals to the voter rolls,” Butler said. “I personally think we are a sovereign state and we should stand up against them.”
Evidence presented to the court showed a more than 60 percent error rate in Allen’s program, removing numerous citizens from the rolls who are eligible to vote.
The legislative session begins in February.
