Four families sue Rady Children's for gender-affirming care program cuts

City News Service
Posted

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - Four families are suing Rady Children's Health in San Diego for its decision to terminate gender-affirming treatments. In a proposed class action lawsuit filed last month in San Diego Superior Court, the families allege that the healthcare system's decision to discontinue much of its gender-affirming care program is discriminatory towards their children, as well as the approximately 1,900 other patients receiving gender-affirming care within the healthcare system.

Rady was also sued by the California Attorney General's Office over the decision, which led a judge to order Rady last month to continue providing care -- other than surgeries -- for patients under 19 years of age. Another hearing in that case is scheduled for April.

Rady representatives declined to comment on pending litigation, but in court last month, attorneys representing the healthcare system said
escalating threats from the Trump administration to cut off Medicare and Medicaid funding played a major role in the decision.

Though the latest lawsuit acknowledges the court order prohibiting Rady from ending gender-affirming care, it states that the plaintiffs "live
with profound uncertainty knowing that defendants plan to end their care as soon as possible."

The families are represented by the Western Center on Law & Poverty, Impact Fund and the National Center for LGBTQ Rights, and in a statement, National Center for LGBTQ Rights Senior Staff Attorney Amy Whelan said, "No hospital in California has the right to single out transgender youth and deny them critical health care. That is discrimination, plain and simple, and it violates California law."

A hearing in the proposed class action suit is scheduled for August.

An Oregon federal judge's decision from earlier this week could have additional ramifications on the Rady cases, as well as others of healthcare systems that plan to terminate gender-affirming care.

In a lawsuit filed by California and more than a dozen other states, U.S. District Court Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled Thursday that U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. overstepped his legal authority by issuing a December declaration stating gender-affirming care doesn't "meet professional recognized standards of health care" and that doctors and hospitals that provide such care could be excluded from federal healthcare programs.

The declaration was cited by one of Rady's attorneys during last month's hearing in San Diego, who said that anything perceived as a violation
of the declaration "is potential grounds for exclusion from Medicare or Medicaid coverage."

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement regarding the Oregon decision, "This ruling marks a major victory in our fight against the Trump Administration's cruel campaign against transgender Americans. The Kennedy Declaration sought to unlawfully bully doctors and hospitals into halting crucial care for transgender individuals nationwide."