Attorney General Letitia James said the state’s anti-discrimination laws require that the procedures remain available.
New York Attorney General Letitia James warned hospitals on Feb. 3 that discontinuing transgender procedures for minors in response to President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting federal funding for such services would violate state law.
In a Feb. 3 letter to health care providers, James said that state anti-discrimination laws remain in effect regardless of federal funding availability. She cited protections for individuals based on “gender identity,” among other characteristics.
“Electing to refuse services to a class of individuals based on their protected status, such as withholding the availability of services from transgender individuals based on their gender identity or their diagnosis of gender dysphoria, while offering such services to cisgender individuals, is discrimination under New York law,” James wrote.
Her warning follows Trump’s Jan. 28 executive order barring federal support for gender transition procedures for individuals under the age of 19. The order states that such treatments—including puberty blockers and surgeries—are medically risky and potentially irreversible. Many minors lack the capacity to fully understand the long-term consequences of undergoing such procedures, according to the order.
“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” Trump’s order reads. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”
Trump’s directive prohibits federally run insurance programs such as Tricare and Medicaid from covering such treatments, orders the Department of Justice (DOJ) to pursue legal action against the practice, and restricts funding for hospitals and universities that provide so-called gender-affirming care, which the order characterizes as “chemical and surgical mutilation.”
Following the order, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued a directive suspending federal grants, loans, and financial assistance related to these programs pending further review.
A coalition of 23 state attorneys general, including James, sued in federal court to block the OMB directive, arguing that the funding freeze was unlawful. On Jan. 31, U.S. District Judge John J. McConnell issued a temporary restraining order, prohibiting the Trump administration from pausing, freezing, or terminating federal financial assistance while the case is litigated.
