Childen’s Minnesota
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Some Minnesota families caught in the crosshairs of Trump’s war on trans kids can once again breathe a little easier, at least for now. Children’s Minnesota, a major regional hospital system, is reinstating the care it had paused on February 27 for transgender youth.
“The decision follows a federal court ruling that vacated a federal declaration attempting to restrict gender-affirming care,” a statement from the hospital, shared with Erin in the Morning, said.
“We are contacting patient families that were affected by the temporary pause in certain services. Offering science- and research-based health care to transgender and gender diverse youth is part of Children’s Minnesota’s vision of being every family’s essential partner in raising healthier children.”
Of the Gender Health program’s 700 active patients, less than 5% were directly and immediately impacted, the hospital said. In other words, the federal government’s crackdown targeted a program that was serving only a few dozen minors with these specific treatments.
The care pause only ever impacted puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy. Children’s Minnesota never performed gender-affirming surgeries specific to trans patients under 18 and psychotherapeutic interventions were relatively unaffected.
“This pause was difficult and hard news for all of our patients,” the statement continued. “The temporary pause was a decision we did not want to make. It was a decision we had to make due to conditions at the time.”
On Dec. 18, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services issued a declaration that dubbed gender-affirming care for trans minors as medically unsound, and could therefore be restricted. However, the March ruling from Judge Mustafa T. Kasubhai found that Kennedy does not possess the legal or scientific authority to render an entire field of health care “not medicine.” Therefore, the Dec. 18 HHS declaration, which excluded providers of such care from participating in federal healthcare programs, was deemed unlawful.
Over 20 states filed a federal lawsuit in December, including Minnesota, against the Trump regime in response to the attacks on trans people’s health care.
Then, in April, the BMJ reported:
The coalition argued that the HHS declaration unlawfully sought to pressure providers by threatening their participation in federal health programmes including Medicare and Medicaid. Accepting this argument, Kasubhai said, “There’s a theme of break it and see what others will do” in the way that the HHS attempted to change national health policy on gender affirming care, using a public statement without allowing the necessary public consultation.
“That’s not a system or method committed to the rule of law,” Kasubhai added.
Now, Judge Kasubhai must decide “whether the federal government should be barred from using the declaration’s reasoning in any future action against hospitals, according to legal analysts,” Becker’s Hospital Review, an industry publication, reported on April 1. In other words, it’s weighing whether the declaration can be cited or used as evidence in a court of law in the future.
“That question, which could determine how much leverage the administration retains over healthcare organizations going forward, remains unresolved.”
Recently, the Department of Justice also sued the state of Minnesota over its trans-inclusive bathroom and sports policies in schools.
“We have been living in a world in Minnesota that is inclusive of LGBTQ people for a long time, and these issues have never been prevalent—it’s not been a problem until we had a federal government that decided that we had to eradicate these people,” said Rep. Leigh Finke, the first openly transgender member of the Minnesota Legislature and a founding member of its Queer Caucus, in an interview with Erin in the Morning earlier this month.
Pam Bondi, who had been leading the charge at the DOJ since Trump’s return to office, was fired from her position as the Attorney General on April 2. It’s not immediately clear who will take her place—or how they will maneuver the upcoming legal battles over trans rights coming down the pike.
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