A federal district court on Thursday, Feb. 13, issued a temporary restraining order blocking enforcement of a Trump administration executive order attempting to shut down access nationwide to gender-affirming medical care for transgender people under 19.
“As today’s decision makes clear, the president does not have the power to unilaterally condition federal funding by requiring discrimination,” Lambda Legal Senior Counselor and Health Strategist Omar Gonzalez-Pagan said in a statement. “To the contrary, our laws and Constitution forbid it. We hope that with today’s decision, healthcare entities can go back to caring for their patients instead of abandoning them over fears of losing admittedly critical federal funding.”
President Donald Trump signed the executive order on Jan. 25 barring gender-affirming health care for minors.
The executive order, which prohibits the federal government from engaging in activities to “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” trans medicine for patients younger than 19, is based on arguments that these treatments lead to financial hardship and regret later in life.
In reality, scientific and medical organizations publish and maintain clinical practice guidelines on gender-affirming care that are based on hundreds of peer reviewed studies assessing the relative risks and benefits associated with each intervention.
“Everyone deserves the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions for themselves and their families — no matter your income, zip code, or health coverage,” said Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson. “This executive order is a brazen attempt to put politicians in between people and their doctors, preventing them from accessing evidence-based health care supported by every major medical association in the country.”
Robinson added, “It is deeply unfair to play politics with people’s lives and strip transgender young people, their families, and their providers of the freedom to make necessary health care decisions. Questions about this care should be answered by doctors — not politicians — and decisions must rest with families, doctors, and the patient.”
HRC noted that in practical terms, the federal government will effectuate this policy by taking such actions as “removing coverage for gender-affirming care from federal health insurance policies, modifying requirements under the Affordable Care Act, and preventing hospitals or other medical providers who accept Medicare or Medicaid, or who receive federal funding for research or education, from providing gender-affirming care of any kind to people under the age of 19.”
“This executive order to deny young transgender people access to the evidence-based, medically-necessary and often lifesaving care they need is an attempt by Donald Trump to insert himself into doctors’ offices across the country and override their medical judgment,” said U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus.
“Decisions about a young person’s healthcare belong with the patient, their families, and their doctors,” he added. “Politicians should not be overriding the private medical decisions of any person, period.”
Georgia Voice editor Collin Kelley contributed to this report.
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2025-02-13 16:15:00
