Families and Advocates Sue New Administration Over Gender-Affirming Care Restrictions
Transgender and nonbinary young adults and their families joined PFLAG National and GLMA in a lawsuit against an executive order from the Republican administration attempting to limit access to gender-affirming care for minors.
“The order directs federal agencies to withhold funds from medical providers and institutions that offer gender-affirming medical treatments such as puberty suppressants and hormone therapies to anyone under 19,” ACLU of Maryland reported on February 4.
The ACLU and Lambda Legal want a judge to put the order on hold. “In a court filing Tuesday, they said Trump’s executive orders are “unlawful and unconstitutional” because they seek to withhold federal funds previously authorized by Congress and because they violate anti-discrimination laws,” Geoff Mulvihill wrote for AP News.
“The President’s denial of care order is morally reprehensible and patently unlawful. The federal government – particularly, this administration – has no right to insert itself into conversations and decision-making that rightly belongs only to patients, their families, and their medical providers,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, senior counsel and healthcare strategist for Lambda Legal, in a statement. “This broadside condemns transgender young people to extreme and unnecessary pain and suffering, and for minors, it subjects their parents to agonized futility in caring for their child — all while denying them access to the same medically recommended health care that is readily available to their non-transgender peers.”
According to a study, “Fewer than 1 in 1,000 U.S. adolescents with commercial insurance received gender-affirming medications — puberty blockers or hormones — during a recent five-year period,” Carla K. Johnson reported for AP News on January 7.
“Major national medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and more than 20 others argue that gender-affirming care is safe, effective, beneficial, and medically necessary,” Kiara Alfonseca wrote for ABC News.