The Justice Department has sued Alabama to overturn a law that criminalizes transgender treatment of minors.

Beginning this month, puberty-inhibiting devices for children will be prohibited in Alabama.

This Monday, the United States Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Alabama’s Senate Bill 184, which forbids the provision of transgender treatment to children.

According to the Department of Justice, criminalizing children’s sexual transition is a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment since it denies them equal protection under the law.

Minors are not permitted to take puberty-blocking medications, according to a bill signed into law by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey earlier this month. According to the proposed legislation, the prescription of puberty blockers or hormones to transgender adolescents to assist them in their gender change is now a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

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Under Senate Bill 184, anyone who ‘engages in or causes’ specific types of medical care for transgender children will be punished as a crime under the law. As the Justice Department stated, “This bill discriminates against transgender people by denying them access to necessary medical care.” Transgender children are subjected to further discrimination as a result of the prohibition on them having specific operations whereas non-transgender minors are permitted to receive the same or similar procedures.”