States, including Michigan, reject HHS plan to block gender-affirming care for minors

[marmar]

(Michigan Advance) Maryland joined 18 states and the District of Columbia Tuesday in a lawsuit challenging a Health and Human Services declaration last week that health care facilities offering gender-affirming care to minors would be barred from Medicare and Medicaid.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Oregon, claims that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. exceeded his authority with the Dec. 18 declaration, which would “effectively ban, by fiat, an entire caregory of healthcare.” It also failed to follow proper procedures for promulgating new rules, would interfere with states’ rights to run their Medicaid programs and regulate health care and deny care to youth that need it.

“Healthcare decisions should be made by doctors and patients – not by politicians in Washington threatening to destroy providers’ careers and spreading fear among transgender youth and their families,” Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a statement late Tuesday night.

“This isn’t just about following the law – though HHS is clearly violating it. This is about protecting vulnerable young people who deserve the same dignity, respect, and access to medical care as anyone else,” Brown’s statement said.

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Besides the District and Maryland, other states in Tuesday’s suit include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvanis, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. ...................(more)

https://michiganadvance.com/2025/12/24/repub/states-including-michigan-reject-plan-to-block-gender-affirming-what-hhs-calls-sex-rejecting-care/