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alliance of 19 states and District of Columbia On Tuesday the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and its inspector general were sued over a declaration that could complicate access to gender-affirming care for young people.
The announcement released last Thursday described treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgery as unsafe and ineffective for children and teens who experience gender dysphoria, or distress when one’s gender expression does not match the sex assigned at birth. It also warned doctors that they could be excluded from federal health programs like Medicare. Medicaid If they provide that type of care.
The manifesto came like this families Also announced are proposed rules to further reduce gender-affirming care for young people, though the lawsuit does not address them because they are not final.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Oregon alleges the declaration is false and unlawful and asks the court to block its implementation. It is the latest in a series of confrontations between an administration that is cracking down on transgender health care for children, arguing it could be harmful to them, and advocates who say the care is medically necessary and should not be disrupted.
“Secretary Kennedy 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 related to doctors’ offices,” new york Attorney General letitia jamesThe person leading the lawsuit said in a statement Tuesday.
The lawsuit alleges that HHS’s announcement seeks to force providers to stop providing gender-affirming care and circumvent legal requirements for the policy change. It says federal law requires the public to be given notice and an opportunity to comment before significant health policy changes are made — neither of which, the suit says, was done before the announcement was issued.
An HHS spokesperson declined to comment.
HHS’s announcement based its findings on a peer-reviewed report the department conducted earlier this year that urged greater reliance on behavioral therapy rather than comprehensive gender-affirming care for youth with gender dysphoria.
The report questions the standards of treatment for transgender youth issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and raises concerns that teens may be too young to consent to life-changing treatments, which could result in future infertility.
Major medical groups and those treating transgender youth have sharply criticized the report as inaccurate, and most major US medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, continue to oppose restrictions on transgender care and services for young people.
The declaration was announced as part of a multipronged effort to limit gender-affirming health care for children and teens — and builds on other efforts by the Trump administration to target the rights of transgender people across the country.
HHS also unveiled two proposed federal rules Thursday — one to cut federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children, and the other to prevent federal Medicaid dollars from being used for such procedures.
The proposals are not yet final or legally binding and must go through a lengthy rulemaking process and public comment before they become permanent. But they would still discourage health care providers from providing gender-affirming care to children.
Many major medical providers have already scaled back gender-affirming care for young patients since Trump returned to office — even in states where the care is legal and protected by state law.
Medicaid programs in less than half of the states currently cover gender-affirming care. At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or restricting the care. The recent Supreme Court decision upholding Tennessee’s ban means most other state laws are likely to remain in place.
James was joined in Tuesday’s lawsuit by the Democratic attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Washington and the District of Columbia. Pennsylvania’s Democratic governor also attended.