MONTGOMERY, ALABAMA–Following legislation in Alabama aimed at preventing transgender children from being given supportive medical care, the Republican-led state legislature has taken further steps. In order to prevent the possibility of children becoming trans, the legislature drafted legislation that would prohibit pediatric care for all Alabamans.
Republican senator Shay Shelnutt, one of the key sponsors of the bill, said “I do know that when I was 14, the training and experience that doctors have when it comes to treating me was not always correct. The safest thing, then, would be to never go to the doctor at all.” The senator dubbed the bill “Preventing Aging Children,” or PAC. PAC criminalizes pediatric treatment of all children until the age of 19, by making it a C-Class felony to practice medicine on children.
The senator, who never was a child, described the immense cost of medicine in the state. “We spend about 5.5 billion dollars a year on Medicaid. Now, you see, about a quarter of those people that live in Alabama are children. If we simply do not pay for child medical services, we could save over a billion dollars a year alone. Not only that, but think of the future. We know what’s best for the people of Alabama and it’s not encouraging children to grow older and take hard working older folks’ jobs. That they will never grow up to be transgender…that’s just a bonus.”
“I fail to see what this has to do with conservative principles of small government,” said Page Lashes, mother of 3 living in Birmingham. Lashes, who does not understand that small government ideas to not really exist to the modern Republican party, voted for Trump in this past election. “What are we going to do? Am I going to have to go to Georgia for care for my child?”
Shelnutt responded, “It’s really for the best of all children leave Alabama. Especially those trans ones, but I’m willing to make other families make that sacrifice. Like I said, that’s a billion dollars. Isn’t that something worth talking about? Isn’t that something worth doing?”