Illinois sues the Trump administration to protect access to gender-affirming care

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul has joined a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration to protect gender-affirming care for young people.

Raoul, more than a dozen other attorneys general and the governor of Pennsylvania filed the lawsuit on Aug. 1 against President Donald Trump, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi and the U.S. Department of Justice. The lawsuit alleges the Trump administration has overstepped its authority by threatening health care providers with federal investigations and criminal prosecutions, according to a statement announcing the lawsuit.

“These actions are causing chaos, confusion, and fear among medical care providers and stoking anxiety and dread among transgender and intersex adolescents and their families, guardians, and caregivers,” the lawsuit said.

In Chicago, four major hospitals have scaled back or cut gender affirming care for young people amid threats from the federal government. That’s left families scrambling to find appointments elsewhere.

In a statement, Raoul called the federal DOJ’s focus on hospitals and health care providers “cruel” and” unlawful,” and said it does not “make children safer.”

Trump sought to end gender-affirming care shortly after he returned to office. A Jan. 28 executive order called for “protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation.” It said the U.S. would not “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another.”

The lawsuit challenges an executive order from Trump and two other federal actions that seek to eliminate health care for transgender people younger than 19 by “intimidating providers into ceasing care through threats of civil and criminal prosecution under laws unconnected to the lawful provision of this care. These threats have no basis in law.”

Government health insurance programs have reimbursed providers for gender affirming care for years, the lawsuit said.

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