Feds agree to halt proposed national youth gender care ban while court weighs motion

A federal attempt at banning gender-affirming care for youth could be delayed even further after the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services agreed to hold it back pending a judge's decision on a motion to resolve the case from suing attorneys general, according to court documents.

The federal agency agreed this week to hold off on communicating its new regulations — which had only been announced, not formally communicated to agencies and healthcare providers across the country — while the motion that could shut down the proposed regulations is weighed by an Oregon District Court judge, per documents filed in an ongoing suit from a coalition of legal representatives and officials from 20 states, including Illinois, and Washington D.C.

The federal government has until February 3 to respond to the motion and file its own motion against it, according to court documents. Should the attorneys general counter, the government will have until March 3 to respond. The judge also set oral arguments for March 19, and records show the government has agreed to hold off on communicating the new regulations until the judge either rules or 30 days have passed after the March hearing.

That means, as things stand, the agency could be delayed in sending official notices to providers that they intend to or will withhold the threatened federal funds until as late as April 19.

Even prior to the agreement, the proposed restrictions need to undergo a rule-making process — including periods of public comment, which is set to end Feb. 17 — as well as document rewrites before becoming permanent. They also face other legal challenges from groups such as the ACLU.

The agency has claimed the care is "harmful," putting it at odds with dozens of major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association. However, previous Trump administration moves have still led to many hospitals across the nation, including in the Chicago area, to cut treatment for thousands of patients out of fear of reprisals from the federal government.

“Health care providers and hospitals should continue to provide the same medically-necessary care to trans young people that they have been providing for decades,” wrote LGBTQ+ civil rights group Equality IL in a statement. “Decisions about a young person’s healthcare should rest with families and doctors — not politicians in Washington, D.C.”

In a newly amended complaint, the attorneys general called HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s declaration “defective,” as it failed to consider the possible fallout of its decision for states and patients, violated concrete procedure and didn’t consider “alternatives” like relegating the care to a “last resort” option. The Illinois Attorney General's office declined to comment.

“At minimum, Secretary Kennedy and HHS cannot circumvent statutorily mandated notice and comment requirements by changing substantive legal standards by executive fiat,” the amended 41-page complaint reads before quoting other cases. “HHS has no ‘lawful excuse for neglecting its statutory notice-and-comment obligations,’ and thus HHS’s ‘new policy cannot stand.’”

Last month, HHS unveiled a series of regulatory actions designed to block access to gender-affirming care for minors, including threats to cut off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide the care to minors.

Medicaid programs in nearly half the states, including Illinois, currently cover gender-affirming care. At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or banning the care.

In the suit filed last month, the attorneys general said the Trump administration was circumventing the usual legal methods for rule changes in an attempt to create a near-nationwide ban on gender-affirming care for patients under 18, while threatening Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, funding if it’s used to provide the care to 19-year-olds, who are legal adults.

They called the measures “arbitrary and capricious” — a line repeated in other cases similar coalitions that included Raoul have filed, including recent judicial decisions blocking the Trump administration from withholding disaster relief and transportation funding from states that didn’t fall in line with the administration’s demands on immigration.

Co-signed on this suit with Raoul are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Hawaiʻi, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington and Wisconsin, as well as the governor of Pennsylvania.