Judge blocks federal plan to curb transgender youth care, upholding state protections

A federal judge in Oregon is set to grant Washington and 20 other states’ motion for summary judgment, blocking a Trump-era Health and Human Services directive that would pressure providers to stop treating transgender youth and threatened to exclude them from Medicaid/Medicare. The judge said the declaration exceeded statutory authority and bypassed required rulemaking, and, once formalized, the ruling would preserve access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth in the involved states.