New York and more than a dozen other states are teaming up to sue the Trump administration in response to its aggressive nationwide effort to restrict gender-affirming care for youth — most notably through an executive order signed early in the president’s second term.
The lawsuit, filed in US District Court for the District of Massachusetts on Aug. 1, charges the administration with unlawfully banning gender-affirming care nationwide by restricting care for individuals under the age of 19 and pressuring providers — including in states like New York, which protects access to gender-affirming care — through executive orders that were implemented when Trump returned to the White House in January.
Specifically, the lawsuit challenges Executive Order 14187 and multiple enforcement actions taken by the Department of Justice to eliminate medically necessary gender-affirming care to minors and some adults by intimidating providers into halting care by issuing threats of civil and criminal prosecution.
“No federal law prohibits, much less criminalizes, the provision or receipt of gender-affirming care for transgender adolescents,” notes the lawsuit, which names President Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and the US Department of Justice. “In fact, federal healthcare programs have reimbursed the provision of such care for years.”
The other states involved in the suit are California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania.
“The federal government is running a cruel and targeted harassment campaign against providers who offer lawful, lifesaving care to children,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a written statement. “This administration is ruthlessly targeting young people who already face immense barriers just to be seen and heard, and are putting countless lives at risk in the process. In New York and nationwide, we will never stop fighting for the dignity, safety, and basic rights of the transgender community.”
Multiple blue states have seen healthcare institutions take steps to roll back gender-affirming care out of fear of losing funding in response to the president’s actions, despite state-level protections. In New York, for example, several hospitals either cancelled appointments, restricted care, or changed policies on their websites in the aftermath of the Trump administration’s executive order targeting federal funding for institutions providing gender-affirming care for individuals under the age of 19.
In subsequent months, the administration showed no signs of relenting. By July, the Department of Justice said it subpoenaed “more than 20” providers of gender-affirming care as part of investigations into healthcare fraud, false statements, and “more,” with Bondi voicing inflammatory and offensive rhetoric in support of that effort.
“Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice,” Bondi said.
The lawsuit filed by the states further makes the case that the Trump administration is overstepping its power given the role of states in regulating medicine.
The lawsuit is calling on the federal court to declare section eight of the executive order unconstitutional, clarify that states have the legal power to regulate medical care, and bar enforcement of section eight of Executive Order 14187 and the related Department of Justice directives.
The eighth section in that executive order called for the attorney general to “prioritize enforcement of protections against female genital mutilation.” “convene States’ attorneys general and other law enforcement officers to coordinate the enforcement of laws against female genital mutilation across all American states and territories,” and “prioritize investigations and take appropriate action to end deception of consumers, fraud, and violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by any entity that may be misleading the public about long-term side effects of chemical and surgical mutilation.”
The lawsuit represents the latest legal challenge to Executive Order 14187, which has been mired in legal proceedings, with federal courts on both coasts blocking parts of the executive order.
During Trump’s first term, James challenged a rule by the administration’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that invalidated a 2016 provision of the Affordable Care Act that required medical professionals, hospitals, and health insurance providers to provide health services equally to trans people and women who have had an abortion.
