Democrat-Led States Challenge HHS Plan to Cut Federal Funds Over Youth Gender Procedures
December 25, 2025
A union of Democrat-led states along with the District of Columbia have filed a federal lawsuit to block recent policy changes proposed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
According to Christianity Daily, those proposed changes would restrict hospitals that perform gender transition procedures on minors from receiving funding through Medicare and Medicaid.
New York Attorney General Letitia James announced on Tuesday that she will spearhead the legal challenge on behalf of nineteen states and the District of Columbia to protect what she claims is “medically necessary” health care for children with gender dysphoria.
The lawsuit comes after last week’s announcement by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., that HHS would seek to change its regulations to disqualify any hospital or medical facility from Medicare and Medicaid participation if it provides sex-change surgeries or hormonal treatments to children
In a statement, James said, “[HHS 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.”
Christianity Today reports that Kennedy signed a formal declaration asserting that “sex-rejecting treatments on children do not meet professionally recognized standards of health care.”
Under that declaration, “sex-rejecting procedures” are defined as “pharmaceutical or surgical interventions, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries such as mastectomies, vaginoplasties, and other procedures, that attempt to align an individual’s physical appearance or body with an asserted identity that differs from the individual’s sex.”
Kennedy and other HHS officials argue that removing healthy organs or suppressing natural puberty, place minors at risk of “irreversible damage, including infertility, impaired sexual function, diminished bone density, altered brain development, and other irreversible physiological effects.”
Photo: top, Credit: Facebook/U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services