A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Tuesday blocking enforcement of the Trump administration’s executive order threatening federal funding for institutions that provide gender-affirming care for anyone under 19.
U.S. District Judge Brendan Hurson of Maryland ordered the defendants to file a status report with the court by March 11 detailing their compliance with the court's order.
The American Civil Liberties Union, Lambda Legal and other groups filed the lawsuit in February on behalf of multiple families and youths who are members of PFLAG National, a nonprofit group supporting the friends and families of LGBTQ people. They alleged that President Donald Trump's order disrupted their care.
The executive order blocked hospitals and clinics that receive federal funding from providing gender-affirming care to those under age 19.
The judge paused the administration's order last month, prompting many providers who had suspended care to resume it under the court's temporary restraining order.
Hurson wrote in Tuesday's order that the plaintiffs had demonstrated that the hardships they were suffering were the result of discontinuation of what medical professionals had deemed to be "essential care." The hardships, he added, were "potentially catastrophic."
"Specifically," Hurson wrote, "the sudden denial or interruption of Plaintiffs’ medical care has caused or is expected to soon cause unwanted physical changes, depression, increased anxiety, heightened gender dysphoria, severe distress, risk of suicide, uncertainty about how to obtain medical care, impediments to maintaining a social life, and fear of discrimination, including hate crimes."
In court filings, the Trump administration opposed the plaintiffs' request for relief, saying their “arguments concern hypothetical downstream action that may or may not result from” the executive order.
The administration added that the “plaintiffs here may be incidentally harmed depending on how those institutions react.”
Hurson’s preliminary injunction will remain in effect until the court decides on the merits of the case.
Joshua Block, senior staff attorney for the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Project, applauded the judge's decision and criticized Trump's executive order.
“This order from President Trump is a direct effort to threaten the well-being of transgender people while denying them equal protection under the law, enacted by coercing doctors to follow Trump’s own ideology rather than their best medical judgment," Block said in a statement.
