Judge blocks Trump executive order banning trans healthcare for under-19s

A federal judge has blocked Trump’s executive order attempting to ban trans healthcare for under-19s.

US Maryland judge Brendan Hurson issued a Thursday (13 February) ruling halting the enforcement of a nationwide ban implemented by Trump as part of his campaign of controversial executive orders, several of which mitigate the rights of LGBTQ+ people.

The 78-year-old president signed the order on 29 January, stating that the federal government “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” gender-affirming care for anyone under 19. The order prompted hospitals across the country to suspend care for trans youth, leaving thousands in limbo.

However, the ruling, issued in Baltimore by Hurson, halts the executive order from withholding federal funds from hospitals and providers of trans healthcare.

It comes after a lawsuit filed by Lambda Lega, PFLAG, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ASCLU) of Maryland challenged the order, saying it is unconstitutional.

“Good and decent parents of transgender kids should never be in the frightening position of having their child’s prescribed, medically necessary care canceled at the whim and threat of a politician,” Brian Bond, CEO of PFLAG National, said in a statement.

“But that’s what president Trump’s executive order did to PFLAG families with trans youth and young adults nationwide. Today’s decision rights a grievous wrong to our nation’s families and children, and PFLAG families will be vigilant to ensure our transgender loved ones receive the healthcare they need – as this legal ruling demands.”

Over the weeks following Trump’s executive order, hospitals in Massachusetts, Maryland, Washington, Colorado, and Virginia suddenly cancelled appointments for thousands of young trans patients, including those who had already been receiving care.

Lambda Lega’s senior counsel, Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, said that the efforts to repeal the rights of the trans community was not only wrong but beyond his legal power.

“The president’s orders sought to take away from transgender young people the very care that they, their families, and their medical providers all agree is best for them – medical care that is evidence-based and well-established,” he said. “These decisions are for patients, their families, and their doctors to make, not for politicians or Washington bureaucrats.

“As today’s decision makes clear, the president does not have the power to unilaterally condition federal funding by requiring discrimination. To the contrary, our laws and Constitution forbid it.”

The ACLU’s LGBTQ+ and HIV Project senior staff attorney Joshua Block, meanwhile, emphasised to families and hospital staff that they should be free to provide medically necessary healthcare for trans youth.

Block added that the decision “should restore both their access to healthcare and protections under the Constitution,” adding that providers who have suspended healthcare “should be left with no doubt that they can lift those suspensions and continue to provide healthcare and act in their best medical judgment without risking their funding or worse.”