The Biden administration announced April 29 that it is joining a legal challenge against a first-of-its-kind law in Alabama criminalizing life-saving medical care for trans youth.

In a brief filed to the northern division of the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) claimed Alabama’s law is unconstitutional. Attorneys for the DOJ said the law violates the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment because it “denies necessary medical care to children based solely on who they are,” going on to note that cisgender youth will still be able to access treatments like puberty blockers and hormone therapy.

“It further discriminates against transgender youth by barring them from accessing particular procedures while allowing non-transgender minors to access the same or similar procedures,” the administration argued.

The Biden administration urged the Huntsville-based court to place an injunction on the Alabama law, known as Senate Bill 184, while a lawsuit against it proceeds through the legal system. A bevy of civil rights and LGBTQ2S+ advocacy groups, including the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), GLBTQ Legal Advocates and Defenders (GLAD) and the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), filed suit against SB 184 shortly after Republican Gov. Kay Ivey signed it into law on April 8.

A district judge is set to hear LGBTQ2S+ advocates’ plea to temporarily block the law on May 5, three days before it is set to go into effect.

Alabama’s law is the first in U.S. history to threaten with criminal penalties those doctors who treat the gender dysphoria experienced by many trans youth. Under SB 184, doctors who prescribe gender-affirming medications or surgery to trans minors under the age of 19 could face a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, as well as a $15,000 fine.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of four families of trans youth, as well as two Alabama doctors, who say they would be directly targeted by SB 184.

“The transgender plaintiffs are currently receiving medical care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, for gender dysphoria,” argued court documents filed by pro-LGBTQ2S+ advocacy groups in April. “If allowed to take effect, the act will interrupt these medically necessary treatments, prevent them from obtaining future medically necessary treatments for gender dysphoria and cause them to experience irreparable physical and psychological harm.”

“Parents want to do what’s best for their children, but SB 184 strips some Alabama parents of that ability.”

Friday’s legal action isn’t the first time the Biden administration has signed on to litigation challenging anti-trans laws. Last year, the DOJ filed briefs in support of lawsuits challenging a trans youth medical care ban in Alabama, and a West Virginia law restricting the participation of trans student athletes in school sports. Unlike Alabama’s law, the Arkansas statute did not threaten doctors with jail time.

Both laws were ultimately blocked by the courts, while LGBTQ2S+ groups fight to have them fully repealed.

The Human Rights Campaign (HRC), America’s largest LGBTQ2S+ group, applauded the White House for continuing to advocate on behalf of equality. HRC legal director Sarah Warbelow said the organization is “encouraged to see the Department of Justice weigh in on this law that so severely interferes in the lives of Alabama families.”

“Parents want to do what’s best for their children, but SB 184 strips some Alabama parents of that ability by imposing criminal penalties for providing critically important and established medical care for their transgender children,” she said in a statement.

Despite the Biden administration’s challenge, the state of Alabama signalled that it is prepared to defend its laws stripping away rights and protections for trans youth. In a Friday statement, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall claimed that the White House “has chosen to prioritize leftist politics at the expense of Alabama’s children.”

“As we will show in this case, DOJ’s assertion that these treatments are ‘medically necessary’ is ideologically driven disinformation,” he said in comments cited by ABC News. “The science and common sense are on Alabama’s side. We will win this fight to protect our children.”

Ivey, meanwhile, has continued to double down on her decision to sign the law ahead of her 2022 reelection bid.

“Some things are just facts: summer is hot, the ocean is big and gender is a question of biology, not identity,” she said in a 30-second campaign ad posted to her Twitter account on Friday.