Families, Doctors Sue Over Executive Order Ending Funding for Transgender Surgeries on Minors

Multiple families sued the Trump administration on Feb. 4 over an executive order barring federal support for transgender surgeries for children and teenagers under the age of 19 nationwide.

The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court of the District of Maryland by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), Lambda Legal, the ACLU of Maryland, and lawyers working on behalf of two young adults who identify as transgender and five adolescents who similarly identify and their families.

PFLAG National, an LGBT advocacy organization, and GLMA, an association of LGBT and allied health professionals in the United States, also joined the lawsuit.

Plaintiffs in the suit argue that President Donald Trump’s order is “unlawful and unconstitutional” and discriminates on the basis of sex and transgender status.

“The Executive Orders were issued for the openly discriminatory purpose of preventing transgender people from expressing a gender identity different from their sex designated at birth,” lawyers for the families wrote in their complaint.

Trump’s order, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” was issued on Jan. 28.

It instructs federally run insurance programs such as Tricare and Medicaid to exclude coverage for “gender affirming care”—including puberty blockers and surgeries—directs the Department of Justice to pursue litigation and legislation to oppose the practice, and restricts federal funding for hospitals and universities that undertake these procedures.

The order also directs the secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to review existing literature on best practices for promoting the health of children who “assert gender dysphoria, rapid-onset gender dysphoria, or other identity-based confusion.”

According to the order, medical professionals across the country are “maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions.”

The order states that many of these vulnerable minors lack the capacity to fully understand the long-term consequences of undergoing transgender surgeries and treatments and ultimately regret having such procedures.

Some are left facing costly medical bills for the rest of their lives or are left to struggle with lifelong medical complications related to such procedures, according to the order.

“Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ’transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures,” the order states.

Trump has signed multiple orders relating to transgender issues since returning to the White House, including one mandating that male inmates who identify as women be housed in male prisons and that the government cease funding their access to hormone therapy.

Another executive order issued by Trump is aimed at restricting people who openly identify as transgender from serving in the U.S. military.

In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs argue that Trump’s order pertaining to transgender surgeries on minors is unconstitutional because it seeks to withhold federal funds previously authorized by Congress.

“Under our Constitution, it is Congress, not the President, who is vested with the power of the purse,” the lawsuit states. “The President does not have unilateral power to withhold federal funds that have been previously authorized by Congress and signed into law, and the President does not have the power to impose his own conditions on the use of funds when Congress has not delegated to him the power to do so.”

Plaintiffs further argue Trump’s order infringes on parents’ fundamental rights to make medical decisions for their children, as well as the rights of young adults who identify as transgender.

In a statement, the ACLU said the lawsuit will be “imminently followed” by a request for an immediate restraining order against the enforcement of Trump’s order.

The Epoch Times has contacted the White House for comment.

Rachel Acenas and The Associated Press contributed to this report.