The Alabama Senate today passed a bill that would make it a crime for doctors to prescribe opposite sex hormones or drugs that block puberty from people under age 19 who identify as transgender.

The bill by Sen. Shay Shelnutt, R-Trussville, was approved by a committee last week after a public hearing that included testimony from doctors and people with first-hand experiences who took positions both for and against the bill.

Shelnutt said today most children with gender dysphoria eventually adjust and that giving them medications that could have permanent effects amounts to child abuse. Shelnutt’s bill is called the Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act.

The Senate passed the bill today by a vote of 22-3. It moves to the House of Representatives.

“I just don’t think and others don’t think that kids should be given experimental drugs or surgeries that could have irreversible consequences for the rest of their life,” Shelnutt said. “Kids are not fully developed until later in life. I think we can all agree that kids aren’t capable of making certain decisions until certain ages. And so, we want to just stop these procedures from happening in Alabama.”

Sen. Vivian Davis Figures, D-Mobile, questioned whether lawmakers should place restrictions on decisions that should be between parents and their children.

Figures said advocates for the bill haven’t presented enough factual information about why they think it’s needed, such as how many children in Alabama would be affected.

“You should at least have the facts and figures to back up what you’re trying to do," she said.

Shelnutt said he didn’t know how many minors had received transgender medications in Alabama but said he knows it’s happening.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s only 20 that it’s happened to. One’s too many,” Shelnutt said.

The bill would make it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, to prescribe, dispense, administer, or otherwise supply opposite sex hormones or puberty-blocking medications to minors. It would also prohibit surgeries that change a minor’s anatomy for gender reassignment.

Shelnutt said he wasn’t aware of any such surgeries on minors in Alabama.

Sen. Billy Beasley, D-Clayton, proposed an amendment to say that pharmacists would not be criminally liable for filling prescriptions for transgender medications for minors. The Senate voted it down 21-6. Beasley is a pharmacist.

A House committee has also approved a bill similar to Shelnutt’s after a public hearing. House Speaker Mac McCutcheon said today he did not know when that bill, sponsored by Rep. Wes Allen, R-Troy, would come to the House floor for a vote.

The Human Rights Campaign, which advocates for people who identify as LGBTQ, opposes the bills, saying they are discriminatory and promote misinformation that’s harmful to young people who are transgender.

Allen has said gender dysphoria is a mental disorder and should be treated as such, rather than with medications that make physical changes.

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement in 2018 saying that transgender identity is not a mental disorder and that medications to suppress puberty and cross-sex hormones can be part of an broad-based “gender-affirmative care model.”

The Eagle Forum of Alabama, a conservative advocacy group, supports the House and Senate bills to protect children from what it says are misguided medical practices.

The Yellowhammer Fund, a nonprofit organization that helps low-income women who are seeking abortions in Alabama with transportation and other services, issued a statement criticizing the Senate for passing the bill.

“We call on the House to treat trans children and their families with more empathy than the state senate and reject this bill as the harmful, divisive legislation it is,” policy director Mia Raven said.