Health

Illinois Joins Lawsuit Challenging Trump Administration’s Efforts to Restrict Gender-Affirming Care

Illinois and more than a dozen other states are suing the Trump administration, claiming it is unlawfully intimidating health care providers into stopping gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

The lawsuit, announced Friday by Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul and Democratic AGs and officials from 16 other states, came just as the University of Illinois Hospital & Clinics (UI Health) in Chicago officially suspended gender-affirming surgical procedures for patients under 19 years old.

“These actions are causing chaos, confusion and fear among health care providers,” Raoul said at a news conference Friday, “and they’re also stoking anxiety and dread among transgender patients and their families.”

President Donald Trump’s administration announced in July it was sending subpoenas to providers and focusing on investigating them for fraud. It later boasted in a news release that hospitals are halting treatments.

The Democratic officials say Trump’s policies are an attempt to impose a nationwide ban on the treatment for people under 19 — and that’s unlawful because there’s no federal statute that bans providing the care to minors. The suit was filed by attorneys general from 15 states and the District of Columbia, plus the governor of Pennsylvania, in U.S. District Court in Boston.

The complaint comes after a month in which at least eight major hospitals and hospital systems — all in states where the care is allowed under state law — announced they were stopping or restricting the care.

UI Heath in a statement said that following a “careful review of recent federal government actions,” it has suspended gender-affirming surgical procedures for patients under age 19 effective Friday. Any patient with those procedures scheduled must now postpone surgery until they turn 19, the hospital system said.

Gender-affirming care includes a range of medical and mental health services to support a person’s gender identity, including when it’s different from the sex they were assigned at birth. It includes counseling and treatment with medications that block puberty, and hormone therapy to produce physical changes, as well as surgery, which is rare for minors.

Rach Washart, a student at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told WTTW News this week the cuts would impact services such as puberty blockers and some surgeries such as mastectomies, the only procedure done on minors.

“Research has shown time and time again that access to this care is life-saving,” Washart said on “Chicago Tonight.” “Young people, especially young trans people, really struggle with mental health and have very high rates of anxiety and depression. Numerous studies have shown that access to gender-affirming care — whether that’s hormones, surgical or even just a social support network of providers — can really reduce those rates and reduce the levels of suicidal intention, self-harm and adverse mental health outcomes.”

Already, other Chicago hospitals including Lurie Children’s, UChicago Medicine and Rush have paused their gender-affirming care for youth, even as such care is legal and protected in Illinois.

According to Raoul, the lawsuit claims the Trump administration has overstepped its authority in using threats of criminal prosecution and federal investigations to pressure health care providers.

Raoul said he doesn’t “cast a negative eye” toward those health care providers who have suspended their gender-affirming care and hopes that through this legal action, they can soon resume providing that care.

“What I will do with the powers of my office is to move to remove the threat,” Raoul said. “To the families, I say and I have said, I will do everything in my power to remove the unconscionable threat that is coming from our federal government.”

On his inauguration day in January, Trump signed an executive order defining the sexes as only male and female for government purposes, setting the tone for a cascade of actions that affect transgender people. About a week later, Trump called to stop using federal money, including from Medicaid, for gender-affirming care for those under 19.

In March, a judge paused enforcement of the ban on government spending for care.

In April, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed government investigators to focus on providers who continue to offer gender-affirming care for transgender youth. “Under my leadership, the Department of Justice will bring these practices to an end,” she wrote.

In May, the Department of Health and Human Services issued a report discouraging medical interventions for transgender youth and instead focusing solely on talk therapy. The report questions adolescents' capacity to consent to life-changing treatments that could result in future infertility. The administration has not said who wrote the report, which has been deeply criticized by LGBTQ+ advocates.

In June, a Justice Department memo called for prioritizing civil investigations of those who provide the treatment.

In July, the Justice Department announced it had sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics involved in gender-affirming care for youth, saying they were part of investigations of health care fraud, false statements and other possible wrongdoing.

And in a statement last week, the White House celebrated decisions to end gender-affirming care, which it called a “barbaric, pseudoscientific practice.”

“While Trump and the Republican Party love to tout the importance of state’s rights,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Friday, “they’re actively trampling over ours.”

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