By Diana Novak Jones
March 19 (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Thursday said he would block an effort by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr that would have sharply restricted medical providers from providing gender affirming care to minors after a group of Democratic states challenged it.
U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai in Eugene, Oregon, said at a hearing that he would grant a summary judgment motion in a lawsuit brought by state attorneys general from 19 states and Washington D.C. that said the declaration by Kennedy overstepped his authority and violated federal law.
Kennedy’s declaration, issued in December, said the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could bar healthcare providers that offer gender-affirming care to children from Medicaid and Medicare and prohibit the Children’s Health Insurance Program from paying for it.
Kasubhai ruled at the end of a lengthy hearing where he heard arguments against the declaration from the states on Thursday, according to court records. He also denied the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ bid to dismiss the lawsuit, records show.
In a statement, New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the attorneys general who sued, said the ruling “gives some needed clarity to patients, families, and providers.
“Health care services for transgender young people remain legal, and the federal government cannot intimidate or punish the providers who offer them,” James said.
Representatives for the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Trump administration has made eliminating legal protections for transgender people a priority, seeking to ban transgender people from the military, bar them from using their gender identities on passports and prohibit federal workers from using bathrooms reflecting their gender identity.
The states sued in December, just days after Kennedy issued his declaration stating his agency’s review of evidence found that medical and surgical treatments for children and adolescents diagnosed with gender dysphoria had an “unfavorable risk-benefit profile.”
The declaration enables HHS’ Office of Inspector General to bar the hospitals from federal healthcare programs, and three hospitals have already been referred to the office, according to the states.
The lawsuit said the declaration was a rule that was illegally promulgated and is an unlawful attempt to strip states of their authority to regulate medicine.
In response, HHS said the declaration represented Kennedy’s opinion on the issue and did not itself bar healthcare providers from the Medicare and Medicaid programs. The office of the inspector general would make that determination after an investigation, HHS said.
Kasubhai said Thursday he will issue written rulings, but he asked both sides to file briefs laying out how to halt the declaration going forward.
(Reporting by Diana Novak Jones; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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