AL Political Reporter: ““The bill passes with a favorable report.” House Judiciary Chairman Hill’s voice showed no enthusiasm. The air was heavy. I put my head in my hands, felt the brief warmth of my escaping tears and willed the remainder to stay away. Again, the Alabama Legislature may soon send a truly painful piece of legislation to Governor Ivey. Hours of debate by a thoughtful Judiciary Committee reached two stark points of bipartisan consensus. HB266/SB184 was among the hardest bills they had ever been asked to consider and also among the worst.
Alabama’s Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act (VCAP) would criminalize the few pediatricians providing youth-focused gender-affirming healthcare. Medical care about which most state lawmakers previously knew nothing. Nuanced, evidence-based care for youth whose gender identity doesn’t align with their sex assigned at birth. Care delivered on a subspecialty level, deeply studied and continually refined. As one of those providers, I sat in attendance. I saw elected public servants abruptly forced into critical medical decision-making. The knowledge they needed is imparted during medical school, residency and molded by years of clinical care and voluminous literature review. It is impossible to acquire in a few weeks. Yet our legislative processes thrust them into this conundrum. Their disdain was palpable in the weight of the moment’s silence.
In that chamber, House Judiciary’s lawmakers were stewards of the venerated police power delegated to State Governments by the Constitution. When local or regional events threaten public safety, state legislatures may regulate private rights in the public interest. Examples include Covid stay-at-home orders and California’s strict vaccine mandate following the 2015 Disneyland measles outbreak. Does the tiny population of gender-diverse kids, some 1% of Alabama youth, and their decades-old standard of care medicine represent a true danger to public safety or security? Emphatically, no. To legitimize abuse of this power, precariously transgresses state entitlements consigned within our Constitution.”