Dec. 24 (UPI) -- More than a dozen states have filed a lawsuit to overturn a new rule created by the Department of Health and Human Services that blocks Medicare and Medicaid funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care for minors.
The suit, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, includes 19 states and the District of Columbia. It's in response to Thursday's announcement that the federal government will ban hospitals from "performing sex-rejecting procedures on children under age 18 as a condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs."
"This is a feeble attempt by the federal government to ignore legal requirements in an effort to dictate medical standards, intimidate providers, and strip states of their long-standing authority to regulate medicine," James and the co-litigants said in a press release.
"At the core of this so-called declaration are real people: young people who need care, parents trying to support their children, and doctors who are simply following the best medical evidence available," James said in a statement. "Secretary [Robert F. Kennedy Jr.] cannot unilaterally change medical standards by posting a document online, and no one should lose access to medically necessary health care because their federal government tried to interfere in decisions that belong in doctors' offices."
