States Sue Trump Administration Over Gender Affirming Care For Children
The suit says the federal government has intimidated medical providers into withholding treatment.
Last week, 15 states and others filed a lawsuit against the Trump Administration to stop federal investigations against hospitals and practitioners who provide gender affirming care to young people. They argue these investigations have made such care less accessible, even as it remains both legal and supported by leading medical organizations.
“Since taking office on January 20, 2025, President Donald J. Trump and his administration have relentlessly, cruelly, and unlawfully targeted transgender individuals,” the suit alleges.
“The Trump administration has sought to deny their very existence, banish transgender residents from the public square, and refuse them medically necessary healthcare through unlawful Executive Orders (EOs) and a raft of federal agency actions implementing those EOs,” it reads, continuing. “The result is an atmosphere of fear and intimidation experienced by transgender individuals, their families and caregivers, and the medical professionals who seek only to provide necessary, lawful care to their patients.”
California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin joined with the District of Columbia and Josh Shapiro in his capacity as governor of Pennsylvania to take aim at Trump’s January 28 EO “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which instructs federal agencies to legally pressure hospitals and doctors to the fullest extent possible in order to curb the use of puberty blockers, hormones, and surgery by threatening research funding among other possible consequences.
As a result, multiple federal agencies — including the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission — set their sights on individuals and entities that provide gender-affirming care, regardless of the legality of such care in a given jurisdiction.
Earlier this summer, the FBI tweeted out a call for report tips on hospitals, clinics, or practitioners who perform surgical procedures on children — a practice that is exceedingly rare and is primarily done for cisgender children, such as breast reduction procedures on cis-boys.
Gender affirming care is the standard treatment for gender dysphoria — including for children— per leading medical bodies, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Psychological Association, the Pediatric Endocrine Society, and others. Among the various treatments available, all are mostly or entirely reversible, with the exception of surgery, which, again, is rarely done on children under the age of 18.
The lawsuit alleges that the Trump administration’s efforts not only flout states’ rights to regulate medicine but also widely agreed-upon standards of care, which will result in unnecessary pain, anguish, and despair for transgender adolescents.
“No federal law prohibits, much less criminalizes, the provision or receipt of gender-affirming care for transgender adolescents,” the suit reads.
Currently, 27 states have enacted laws banning or limiting gender-affirming care for young people. In some cases, this has even included adults under the age of 19. Other states have implemented protections for trans people in response to these threats. Still, the suit notes, even in states where gender-affirming care is protected, federal efforts have interfered to the point of shutting down care opportunities and even clinics altogether.
“None of the Administration’s actions challenged by this suit have any legal basis,” the lawsuit claims. “They should be declared unlawful and vacated in their entirety.”
