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U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., and Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall have both released statements in favor of President Donald Trump’s Jan. 28 executive order restricting gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The Trump administration executive order entitled “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” prohibits medical institutions that receive federal research or education grants from providing gender-affirming care to patients under the age of 19.
The order reads that the federal government will not “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” gender-affirming care treatments for those under 19, including the use of puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries.
The order also instructs national and state attorneys general to work alongside local law enforcement “to coordinate the enforcement of laws against female genital mutilation across all American States and Territories.”
The order also mandates that federally funded agencies “rescind or amend” all policies relying on guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
Beginning in 1979, WPATH has released guidelines clinical professionals for safely treating patients with gender dysphoria through its Standards of Care for the Health of Transgender and Gender Diverse People. The organization released its most recent edition of the Standards of Care in 2022.
The White House order mandates that, within 90 days of its publishing, the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will publish a review of existing literature on the best practices for “promoting the health of children who assert gender dysphoria, rapid-onset gender dysphoria, or other identity-based confusion.”
Marshall took to X the day of the order to share his support for the Trump administration’s decision.
“Pres. Trump follows Alabama’s lead, immediately halting life-altering procedures on American children,” Marshall wrote. “Proud that our state was able to expose this evil for what it is and spare children from the harm of this irresponsible ideology.”
Tuberville similarly expressed support for the order in a Tuesday press release.
Tuberville’s release read, “We all know by now that so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ is anything but caring. There’s a reason it’s illegal for kids to buy alcohol, a lottery ticket, or join the military. Allowing our young people whose brains aren’t fully developed to undergo a life-altering, irreversible procedure is pure insanity.”
“This isn’t about politics—this is about good and evil. I’m thankful for President Trump’s commonsense leadership to end this barbaric practice in our country once and for all,” Tuberville continued.
A Tuesday press release from WPATH criticized the Trump’s executive order, reading, “Transgender youth need comprehensive, individualized, family-based care from multidisciplinary teams. Healthcare decisions should be made by patients, families, and their healthcare professionals, guided by evidence-based practices, clinical guidelines, and individual needs rather than government mandates.”
LGBTQ+ civil rights organization Lambda Legal vowed that the organization will take quick legal action against the ban.
“In seeking to deny transgender youth the medically sound and well-established health care that they need, this administration could put thousands of vulnerable young lives at risk. It is an outrageous overreach of government power that reveals its cruel absolutism,” said Lambda Legal Senior Counsel and Healthcare Strategist Omar Gonzalez-Pagan.
The Trump administration has filed three executive orders targeting what it calls “radical gender ideology,” beginning on inauguration day when the president signed an order declaring the government will only recognize “two sexes, male and female.”
Lambda Legal, alongside the Human Rights Campaign, have also shared their intent to file a lawsuit to block an executive order signed by Trump on Monday that bans transgender troops from serving openly in the military. This order has already been challenged by a federal lawsuit from GLAD Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights on behalf of six active-duty trans service members.
In Alabama, providing gender-affirming care to those under the age of 19 was made a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in 2022.
The state was allowed to begin enforcing the law in January 2024, after an injunction blocking its enforcement was denied by the 11th Court of Appeals.
Republican legislators nationwide have enacted gender-affirming care bans for minors in over half of U.S. states.
