The coalition is challenging HHS’ declaration warning doctors could lose access to Medicare, Medicaid programs for providing gender transition treatment to minors
By Catholics for Catholics
The blue states are striking back.
A group of 19 blue-led states and Washington, D.C., filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump’s administration over a declaration that aims to restrict gender transition treatment for minors.
The lawsuit is squarely against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. It also includes the inspector general, according to Fox News.
The suit comes after the declaration issued last week by the HSS described treatments such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy and gender surgeries as unsafe and ineffective for children experiencing gender dysphoria. The HHS warned doctors they would be expelled from federal health programs, including Medicare and Medicaid, if they provide these treatments to minors.
The states included in the lawsuit against HHS are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Wisconsin, Washington state and Washington, D.C., as well as Pennsylvania.
Filed Tuesday in Eugene, Oregon, the states’ lawsuit argues that the HHS declaration is erroneous and against the law and urges the court to prevent it from being enforced.
“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 that belong in doctors’ offices,” New York Attorney General Letitia James, who led the lawsuit, said in a statement.
The lawsuit contends the declaration intends to pressure providers into ending gender transition treatment for young people and evade legal requirements for policy changes. The complaint said federal law commands that the public be given notice and an opportunity to comment before substantively amending health policy and that neither of these were done before the declaration was released.
Still, the HHS action seeks to build on President Trump’s executive order in January calling on HHS to protect children from “chemical and surgical mutilation.”
“We are taking six decisive actions guided by gold standard science and the week one executive order from President Trump to protect children from chemical and surgical mutilation,” Kennedy said during a press conference last week.
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