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08/04/2025
More than 12 States Sue to Protect Gender-affirming Care from Federal Investigations
The lawsuit accuses the administration of pursuing a strategy to skirt state laws
A group of state attorneys general, led by New York, has filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of mounting an unconstitutional pressure campaign against gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The lawsuit, filed Friday in the U.S. District Court in Massachusetts, challenges actions taken by the Justice Department to investigate and halt gender-affirming care across the country.
The lawsuit argues that the Trump administration is pursuing a backdoor strategy to restrict gender-affirming care at the federal level through threats of criminal and civil penalties, while skirting state laws that protect transgender patients’ health care.
As federal investigations and funding threats roll out, hospitals across the country are shutting down their gender-affirming care programs for minors — including in areas where access to this care is protected by state law. Clinics and medical programs have shuttered in California, Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois and Washington, D.C., among others — despite state laws that protect the care’s legality. Multiple hospitals have attributed shuttering or pausing their gender-affirming care programs to President Donald Trump’s executive orders and federal administrative actions, including the Yale health system and Denver Health in Colorado.
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