A federal judge blocked President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order restricting health care for transgender youth in the latest example of the judiciary halting the president’s actions.
Trump’s order signed last month refers to gender-affirming care as “mutilation” and would have restricted this care for those under 19 years old. The order states: “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.”
Families of transgender children, a doctor’s organization and PFLAG sued the Trump administration on February 4 over this order and the president’s order recognizing only the male and female sexes.
“Invalidating the true and biological category of ‘woman’ improperly transforms laws and policies designed to protect sex-based opportunities into laws and policies that undermine them, replacing longstanding, cherished legal rights and values with an identity-based, inchoate social concept,” the order says.
The plaintiffs labeled the orders “unlawful and unconstitutional” and asked for an injunction to block their enforcement.
U.S. District Judge Brendan A. Hurson, a Joe Biden appointee, blocked it from taking effect during a hearing Thursday.
“This is a population with an extremely higher rate for suicide, poverty, unemployment, drug addiction,” Hurson said, according to the Washington Post. Abruptly stopping their health treatments, would be “horribly dangerous for anyone, for any care, but particularly for this extremely vulnerable population.”
The ruling is in effect for 14 days and can be extended, the Associated Press reported. The government is expected to appeal.
His order “seems to deny that this population even exists, or deserves to exist,” Hurson said.
Thursday’s ruling is the latest case in which a judge ruled against the Trump administration.
In a separate court, a federal judge on Thursday extended a temporary block on the Trump administration’s plan to place thousands of U.S. Agency for International Development employees on leave.
Earlier this week, a federal judge found that Trump’s funding freeze on federal grants and loans was “likely unconstitutional” and “has caused and continues to cause irreparable harm to a vast portion of this country.” The judge also found the White House was not in compliance with is previous order and directed the Trump administration to “immediately restore frozen funding.”
A series of judges have also blocked Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship.
