Seattle Children’s Hospital postponed a transgender teen’s masculinizing top surgery only hours before it was scheduled allegedly to comply with one of President Donald Trump’s executive orders targeting health care access for trans people under the age of 19. The family says it’s unclear if or when the procedure would be rescheduled.
Trump’s executive order banning all federal support for gender-affirming care for trans people under the age of 19, which among many things, threatens to withhold federal funds from hospitals that provide such care.
The family says they were told during a meeting with surgical center staff Tuesday morning that if the hospital lost access to those federal funds, other children’s care would be at risk, and the decision was made with the entire community’s interest in mind.
The hospital has a method it can use if it wants to avoid losing access to federal funding without having to violate state law by pulling gender-affirming care. It can file a lawsuit in federal court and ask for a restraining order on enforcement of the executive order. That’s the decision to make if the entire community’s interest was in mind.
Multiple parties are already doing that, but until the outcome of those lawsuits is known, they would still be taking that risk. Filing a lawsuit is not a magic wand.
Executive orders are not laws. The hospital is not obligated to follow it; they want to follow it.
Trump’s executive order banning all federal support for gender-affirming care for trans people under the age of 19, which among many things, threatens to withhold federal funds from hospitals that provide such care.
The family says they were told during a meeting with surgical center staff Tuesday morning that if the hospital lost access to those federal funds, other children’s care would be at risk, and the decision was made with the entire community’s interest in mind.
The hospital has a method it can use if it wants to avoid losing access to federal funding without having to violate state law by pulling gender-affirming care. It can file a lawsuit in federal court and ask for a restraining order on enforcement of the executive order. That’s the decision to make if the entire community’s interest was in mind.
Multiple parties are already doing that, but until the outcome of those lawsuits is known, they would still be taking that risk. Filing a lawsuit is not a magic wand.