(Reuters] – The Alabama law making it a crime to give gender-affirming medical care to transgender teens went into force on Sunday. A federal judge will decide whether to suspend the temporary suspension.

It is a crime that punishes transgender teens under 19 years old with up to 10 year imprisonment for providing hormones, puberty blocksers or medical treatments.

On April 8, Governor Kay Ivey signed the bill. Arkansas’s similar law, although less extensive in scope, was also blocked last year by the courts before it was allowed to go into effect.

According to media reports, U.S. District Judge Liles Burke did not give any indication of when he would rule on the request to temporarily suspend enforcement of ban while a case is pending.

The lawsuit, brought by organizations including the Human Rights Campaign and GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, argues the ban would cause “immediate and irreparable” harm to the plaintiffs and that the measure violates several of their constitutional rights.

Two doctors and a minister, as well as four parents of transgender children in Alabama, filed the suit on their behalf. The U.S. Department of Justice is joining the suit, declaring that Alabama’s law “violated” the Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause.

According to mainstream mental and medical health professionals, gender-affirming treatment saves lives and reduces the suicide risk among trans youth.

According to experts, gender-reassignment surgery is very rare for those under 18. It would only be performed after many years of treatment and in situations where the patient has made their wishes known.

Before the November midterm congressional election, transgender rights are a hot topic in culture wars. Many bills were introduced in the state legislatures by Republican lawmakers, with most of them aimed at trans teens.

Republicans and conservative activists are promoting the law as protections for children, parental rights and dignity. Democrats and LGBTQ activists are the opponents of this legislation. They claim that it would be harmful and unnecessary and have terrible consequences for an already vulnerable population.

A recent survey conducted by Trevor Project (a non-profit focusing on suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth) found that 93% of transgender youth expressed concern about “being denied access” to gender-affirming health care because of state and local laws.