March 19, 2025
BALTIMORE (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked President Donald Trump’s recent executive order aimed at restricting gender-reassignment treatments for people under age 19.
The judge’s ruling came after a lawsuit was filed earlier this month on behalf of families with children who allege their health care has already been compromised.
Judge Brendan Hurson, who was nominated by Biden, granted the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order following a hearing in federal court in Baltimore. The restraining order, which lasts 14 days but could be extended, essentially puts Trump’s directive on hold while the case proceeds.
That means medical institutions can’t have their federal funding pulled because they provide gender-reassignment treatments.
The restraining order is nationwide in scope and will apply to institutions across the country. Attorneys for the government didn’t indicate whether they plan to appeal it.
Shortly after taking office, Trump signed an executive order directing federally run insurance programs to exclude coverage for such treatment. That includes Medicaid, which covers gender-reassignment treatment in some states, and TRICARE for military families. Trump also signed an earlier executive order that defined the sexes as male and female while commanding that federal funds “shall not be used to promote gender ideology.”
Attorneys for the government argued that Trump, through his orders, was simply directing federal agencies to take lawful steps to carry out his policy preferences. They said the orders weren’t aimed at restricting health care access for youth, but rather a decision from the president on how his administration would distribute federal funding.
Trump’s approach on the issue represents an abrupt change from the Biden administration, which sought to explicitly extend civil rights protections to people who identify as transgender. Trump has used strong language in opposing gender-reassignment treatments, stating that “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.”
