Federal Judge Blocks Trump’s Trans Healthcare Ban

A federal judge in the District Court of Maryland has placed a temporary block on Trump’s executive order aimed at eliminating gender-affirming care for youth nationwide. Judge Brendan Abell Hurson put the temporary order in place on February 13, blocking a slew of federal health administrations including the RFK Jr.-headed Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) from acting on the order.

The executive order instructs healthcare centers that currently provide gender-affirming care to people under the age of 19 to cease doing so, or get their federal funding remove—something that makes it virtually impossible to refuse for many healthcare centers, from massive hospitals to small clinics. Judge Hurson’s block of the order is in response to a lawsuit filed against Trump on the basis of the order by the ACLU, Lambda Legal, and other human rights/queer-focused organizations. The complaint in the suit registers the executive order as “openly discriminatory” and “part of a government-wide effort by the Trump Administration to restrict legal protections and essential services for the transgender community,” and the plaintiffs are seeking reparations for discrimination on the basis of sex and disability, violations of the First and Fifth Amendments in the U.S. Constitution, and usurpation of Congress by unlawfully freezing government fund distribution.

Judge Hurson’s temporary order will only remain in effect for two weeks from it’s filing date of February 13 and requires affected agencies to file regarding their compliance by February 20 (which has just passed). Judge Hurson’s reasoning for clamping down on the order was that, correctly, going cold turkey on children’s medical care is dangerous; not only to their mental well-being, but to their physical bodies as well. “Stopping care in the middle of receiving any care really casts doubt on whether the goal is to protect recipients of that care,” says Hurson in his remarks on his decision.