Sixteen states sue White House over healthcare access for transgender youth

Source: The Guardian

Sixteen states sue White House over healthcare access for transgender youth

Democratic attorneys general are challenging Trump administration’s efforts to end vital medical treatments for trans youth

Sam Levin in Los Angeles
Fri 1 Aug 2025 20.31 BST
First published on Fri 1 Aug 2025 17.00 BST

Sixteen states are suing the Trump administration to defend transgender youth healthcare access, which has rapidly eroded across the US due to threats from the federal government.

The Democratic attorneys general of California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois and Connecticut are leading the lawsuit, announced on Friday, which challenges the president’s efforts to eradicate vital medical treatments for trans youth.

The complaint targets one of the president’s first executive orders issued in January, which described puberty blockers and hormone therapy as “chemical and surgical mutilation”, called for federal funds to be withheld from hospitals that provide the treatments and suggested the US Department of Justice could investigate doctors. Those gender-affirming treatments, which are accessed by a small fraction of youth in the US, have for years been the standard of care endorsed by major US medical associations.

Under intensifying threats that hospitals could lose federal funding, and growing fears that providers could be criminally prosecuted, a number of major institutions have abruptly ended gender-affirming care for trans youth.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/01/states-sue-trump-administration-transgender-youth-healthcare