A federal judge on Thursday stopped US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from curbing access to gender-affirming care for minors, blocking a declaration from the administration that said the treatments are “neither safe nor effective” for addressing gender dysphoria.
Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai of the US District Court for the District of Oregon granted from the bench a motion for summary judgment brought by a coalition of Democratic states urging the court to declare Kennedy’s declaration exceeds his office’s authority and fails to comply with rulemaking requirements.
Illinois, New York, California and other states sued the Trump administration late last year, arguing its effort to withhold Medicare and Medicaid dollars from hospitals providing gender-affirming care to minors interferes with state authority.
The lawsuit followed the December announcement from the US Department of Health and Human Services that it was rolling out a plan to curb access to gender-affirming care. That included a declarationclaiming those providing transgender care aren’t complying with medical standards. In it, Kennedy claimed the declaration superseded statewide and national care standards.
“Standards of care recommended by certain medical organizations are unsupported by the weight of evidence and threaten the health and safety of children with gender dysphoria,” the declaration said.
In response to Kasubhai’s order, New York Attorney General Letitia James said the “win breaks through the noise and 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.
Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield, whose state was among those in the lawsuit, said that “the court saw through the federal government’s attempt to bully hospitals and providers into abandoning their patients.”
The court is slated to issue a formal written opinion.
The case is Oregon v. Kennedy, D. Or., No. 6:25-cv-02409, decision 3/19/26.
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