Opinion

I’m a doctor and Alabama could arrest me for doing my job

Updated May 10, 2021; Posted May 10, 2021

By Dr. Morissa Ladinsky, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at UAB
This is an opinion column

I am a pediatrician. But Alabama may soon take my white coat and stethoscope, charging me with a felony for doing my job. ... I co-lead the Youth Multidisciplinary Gender Team at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, one of 55 subspecialty partnerships nationally that provide affirming care to gender diverse youth. One of 33 such bills nationally, Alabama’s Senate Bill 10 would criminalize doctors for providing this care, and it is one vote away from reaching Governor Kay Ivey’s desk.

When I first read this bill, it reminded me of a recent consult with another patient battling gender dysphoria. My patient — a well-built teen clad in oversized maroon scrubs — was pacing tensely about the small room in my hospital’s psychiatric ward.

This patient, admitted into the hospital as male, was admitted for a third suicide attempt and unrelenting depression. Earlier that day, the patient told the care team an inescapable secret: The patient had always known herself to be a girl. With puberty closing in, a visceral dissonance deep inside her, amplified by the trepidation of angering her family, left her entirely hopeless. Her dark eyes, windows to a kind but troubled soul, conveyed her long journey to today, forever searching to be heard and understood.

Since the first pediatric gender clinic emerged at Boston Children’s Hospital in 2007, medical care models have been improved and refined to uphold health for transgender youth worldwide. Teams like mine unite pediatric endocrinologists, primary care pediatricians, behavioral health clinicians and affirming chaplains. This evidence based, guideline-driven standardized care is endorsed by the 70,000-member American Academy of Pediatrics, among several other medical organizations. For decades, we’ve been quietly healing thousands of youth, just like this patient. Slowly, meticulously, helping youth and families become whole.

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