Federal judge temporarily blocks Trump order restricting trans care for youths
A federal judge temporarily blocked an executive order signed by President Trump last month that sought to restrict access to gender-affirming medical care for those younger than 19.
A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order aiming to restrict transgender health care for anyone under 19.
U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson of Maryland was skeptical of the government’s argument that the order is not a nationwide ban on care but rather a “general policy directive” and that the plaintiffs — who are trans teens and young adults whose care has been affected by the order — must wait to sue.
“In this situation, it is clear that these plaintiffs have received phone calls stopping their care, stopping their appointments, stopping their everything,” Hurson said at the hearing Thursday, adding that hospitals stopped care because of the order, which also seeks to prohibit federal funding of transition-related care for minors.
“I don’t know how you can credibly argue that this is not demanding the cessation of funding for gender affirming care,” he said.
Joshua Block, a senior staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBTQ & HIV Project who represented the plaintiffs, said the executive order had “sown fear among transgender youth and confusion among their providers.”
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