Judge Says He’s Ruling Against RFK Jr. Move to Block Gender Dysphoria Procedures for Kids

A federal judge said March 19 he would be granting a motion by states to vacate a declaration from Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. against breast removal and other procedures for youths with gender dysphoria.

U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai said during a hearing in Oregon that he would soon issue a formal written opinion and order denying the government’s bid to dismiss the case brought by the states and granting the states’ motion for summary judgment, according to court records.

In late 2025, Kennedy issued a declaration stating that “sex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective as a treatment modality for gender dysphoria, gender incongruence, or other related disorders in minors, and therefore, fail to meet professional recognized standards of health care.”

The declaration was based on a report by the Department of Health and Human Services analyzing procedures and treatments for gender dysphoria and concluding that many of them carry risks such as infertility.

Under the declaration, the government had said, health care professionals who performed breast removal and other procedures on minors would be out of compliance with updated standards.

Officials also announced related moves, including a pledge to bar hospitals participating in Medicare or Medicaid from performing the procedures on children.

New York and 18 other states sued, alleging the measures were not legal.

The Kennedy declaration “amounts to an end-run around the free choice of provider statute because it effectively bars Medicaid beneficiaries from choosing providers that are otherwise qualified, simply because they furnish gender-affirming care to children or adolescents,” the states said in their motion for summary judgment.

At least 17 hospitals and health centers had been referred for possible exclusion from Medicaid and Medicare for violating Kennedy’s declaration, they said.

Government lawyers in a brief said the declaration reflected Kennedy’s “non-binding policy position on the safety and efficacy of certain pediatric and adolescent treatment modalities.” They said the opinion was among multiple pieces of information officials considered in the exclusion proceedings.

The Trump administration separately asked the court to dismiss the case due to a lack of jurisdiction.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, one of the plaintiffs, said the forthcoming ruling siding with the states showed Kennedy “cannot unilaterally change medical standards by posting a document online, and no one should lose access to medically necessary health care because their federal government tried to interfere in decisions that belong in doctors’ offices.”

Government officials did not respond to a request for comment by the time of publication.