Absolutely not click-bait. The title reflects the intent and content of the bills. The Alabama legislature is vocally against the concept of transgenderism.

> AFAIK this and similar bills outlaw what could be termed “body modification” for under-18 children

Surgery recommended by a doctor is not "body modification," it is medical treatment.

Also, this goes far beyond surgery. It also outlaws the use of prescription drugs.

> roughly in line with overall limitations on the freedoms of underage individuals (e.g. regarding technically-consensual sex, or vulva surgery - which is legally “female circumcision” if performed on underage women

First of all, minors can have consensual, legal sex... with each other. Age-of-consent laws are intended to protect children from adults, not from themselves. I don't see what this has to do with anything, because it's unrelated to a medical condition and doesn't require a doctor to carefully manage it.

Second, "female circumcision" is not "vulva surgery," it is usually mutilation of the clitoris intended to eliminate female pleasure. It is not something a minor would (or could) seek as a treatment for any medical condition.

I'm not a doctor, but my understanding is that trans people still have bodies after they transition. Do you disagree?

I don't trust children to make decisions about irreversibly altering their own bodies.

There's a very real chance that this could be viewed by a future generation like 1920s "Progressives" that thought they were agents of goodness and social progress, equipped with science.

This whole unqualified pro-trans push could be hubristic people who're unwittingly "medically fixing" queer kids with internalized concepts and phobias from their social culture.

> I don't trust children to make decisions about irreversibly altering their own bodies.

Neither do I. Neither does anyone. You're attacking something that does not happen. Children who want to transition have to consult with physicians and psychologists.

> There's a very real chance that this could be viewed by a future generation like 1920s "Progressives" that thought they were agents of goodness and social progress, equipped with science.

No, there isn't. You seem to be talking about eugenics, which was people forcing their views of "science" onto others.

In the case of children transitioning, it's not anything being forced on them. Their parents are not coming up with it, and neither are their doctors. It's something they bring up themselves.

Children are almost always given reversible (meaning hormone-based) treatments, and the rate at which they change their minds later is 0.4%[1].

Considering how rare transgender people are in the first place, that is an exceedingly small number of people.

1. https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/media-s-detransition...

> You seem to be talking about eugenics

I'm talking about having a healthy sense of self-doubt.

History shows us that the imprimatur of science is used to advance hubris-driven, pernicious social ideas of a time.

The take-away is that when you're absolutely convinced that some new trend is moral and liberating, you should at the very least try to imagine the possibility that you're not only wrong but actively doing harm.

There are hundreds of studies investigating whether harm is done. You seem to be speculating without doing any research first.

If children bring up wanting to do hard drugs, and they talk with parents, doctors and psychologists, and still want to do it, should we let them? Hell no! They’re not mature enough to really understand the life long consequences. And so many people make bad choices during their emotional and hormone fueled teen years, that alone should be a check against making permanent changes.

If an American doctor provides medical prescription or service in alignment with professional medical standards, such as the American Pediatric Association or AMA, ought we not at least visit their medical reasoning before seeking to ban medical service?

But there is nothing like that here.

> vulva surgery - which is legally “female circumcision”

So, are you saying it's now also outlawed male mutilation too? Because, circumcision serves zero positive purpose and has many negatives.

I don't remember "choosing" to be circumcised, parents weren't even religious it just "kinda happened" nobody "knows why". My kids are NOT circumcised and never will be unless they choose.

Trans alteration on the other hand is a rare, personally chosen procedure - only chosen after due diligence and failure to do the procedure often results in self-esteem issues and sometimes death (suicide). Very low percentages < 1% ever change their mind about it.

It may not even be accurate to say it's a "choice" rather than just the way they're born/wired and an inevitable outcome regardless of what age it occurs.

Vulva surgery. They held women down in Afghanistan and forced that upon them as a punishment and people are actually advocating for it.

The existing standard of care already delays surgery until adulthood. This bill even outlaws prescribing drugs to delay puberty.