Trump Lawsuit: States Sue Over Gender-Affirming Care Ban
States Sue Trump Administration Over Crackdown on Gender-Affirming Care
WASHINGTON D.C. – A coalition of 19 states and the District of Columbia has filed a lawsuit challenging a Trump administration executive order that targets gender-affirming care for minors, arguing it oversteps federal authority and infringes upon states’ rights. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, specifically contests a directive from the Justice Department to investigate providers of gender-affirming care, potentially using laws not designed for such purposes.
The executive order, signed by President Trump on January 28th, declared that “medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions.” It defined children as individuals under 19 and vowed to cease federal funding or support for gender transitions in minors, while also promising to “rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
At the heart of the states’ legal challenge is a section of the order that directed Attorney General Jeff sessions to convene state attorneys general and law enforcement officials to investigate gender-affirming care providers and related organizations. The order suggested these investigations could be based on laws concerning “female genital mutilation” or the 1938 Food,Drug,and Cosmetic Act,which grants the Food and Drug Administration regulatory power over medical products.
Following this directive, Attorney General Sessions announced on July 9th that the Justice Department had issued subpoenas to healthcare providers, stating that doctors and hospitals “that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable.” Further reports emerged on July 25th, indicating that Bill Essayli, a controversial Trump administration nominee for U.S. attorney in Los Angeles,had explored the possibility of criminally charging doctors and hospitals for providing gender-affirming care.
Critics argue that the administration’s focus on gender-affirming care is part of a broader agenda to dismantle transgender rights, premised on the assertion that transgender individuals do not exist. This stance was reinforced by an early executive order on Trump’s first day in office, which declared only two sexes. The administration has also moved to restrict transgender individuals’ ability to obtain passports reflecting their gender identity and has sued California over its policies permitting transgender girls to compete in girls’ youth sports.
The legal action is led by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, alongside his counterparts from Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York. Thay are joined by Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and the attorneys general of Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin.
The targeting of gender-affirming care has instilled notable fear within the LGBTQ+ community, particularly among parents of transgender children. Some parents have expressed deep anxiety that their children’s health records, potentially collected through Justice Department subpoenas, could be used against them. One mother, speaking anonymously to The times, voiced her terror that the Justice Department might “come after parents and use the female genital mutilation law… to prosecute parents and separate me from my child.”
While Becerra’s office has not confirmed any instances of parents being targeted, he acknowledged the possibility given the administration’s actions. “If they’re willing to use nonexistent law to attack providers, what would stop them from going after parents as well, as they wage these cultural wars?” Becerra stated at a press conference. The lawsuit aims to push back against what many view as an overreach of federal power and an attack on established medical practices and individual rights.