19 states and D.C. sue HHS over gender-affirming care rule
by Lisa Hornung · UPIDec. 24 (UPI) -- More than a dozen states have filed a lawsuit to overturn a new rule created by the Department of Health and Human Services that blocks Medicare and Medicaid funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care for minors.
The suit, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, includes 19 states and the District of Columbia. It's in response to Thursday's announcement that the federal government will ban hospitals from "performing sex-rejecting procedures on children under age 18 as a condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs."
"This is a feeble attempt by the federal government to ignore legal requirements in an effort to dictate medical standards, intimidate providers, and strip states of their long-standing authority to regulate medicine," James and the co-litigants said in a press release.
"At the core of this so-called declaration are real people: young people who need care, parents trying to support their children, and doctors who are simply following the best medical evidence available," James said in a statement. "Secretary [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] cannot unilaterally change medical standards by posting a document online, and no one should lose access to medically necessary health care because their federal government tried to interfere in decisions that belong in doctors' offices."
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield filed the suit in an Oregon federal court. Defendants include Kennedy and the Department of Health and Human Services.
Joining the suit are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin and Washington, and the District of Columbia.
"Every family deserves the freedom and privacy to make informed choices about their medical care with their providers," Sarah Kate Ellis, president and CEO of GLAAD, said in a statement. "Any politician working to interfere with that access, and take away choices, is endangering people's lives."
The Trevor Project, a nonprofit organization that focuses on suicide prevention efforts for LGBTQ youth, said people call its crisis line over health care frequently.
"The Trevor Project's counselors regularly hear from transgender and nonbinary youth who contact our 24/7 crisis services to express fear about anti-transgender laws and policies they hear about in the news -- including threats to essential health care they rely on," Casey Pick, senior director of Law and Policy at The Trevor Project, said in a statement. "This type of care is nothing new; it is steeped in decades of scientific research, and supported by all of our country's leading medical and mental health associations."
President Donald Trump has issued several executive orders against transgender people in his second administration. In May, the Pentagon began removing transgender service members from the military. In March, the Department of Veterans Affairs began phasing out medical treatments for gender dysphoria. In February, Trump signed an executive order banning transgender women from participating in women's sports. In January, Trump signed an executive order that restricts gender-affirming care for minors.
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President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order reclassifying marijuana from a schedule I to a schedule III controlled substance in the Oval Office of the White House on Thursday. Photo by Aaron Schwartz/UPI | License Photo