Attorney General Anne Lopez, along with a group of 13 other states' attorneys general, has publicly opposed the Trump Administration's latest executive action on gender-affirming care. In a joint statement released yesterday, the group emphasized that health care decisions should be made by patients, families, and doctors, not politicians, as per the release on the Office of the Governor website.
The attorneys general rejected the Administration's comparison of gender-affirming care to "female genital mutilation," pointing out the lack of scientific evidence or legal precedent to support such claims. "Despite what the Trump Administration has suggested, there is no connection between “female genital mutilation” and gender-affirming care, and no federal law makes gender-affirming care unlawful. President Trump cannot change that by Executive Order," they stated in the same release. The group also celebrated a federal court victory last week, which allowed continued funding for gender-affirming care despite the Executive Order.
Federal agencies have been directed to continue funding gender-affirming care. The coalition's statement clarified, "federal agencies cannot pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate any awards or obligations on the basis of the OMB memo, or on the basis of the President’s recently issued Executive Orders," in a release on the Office of the Governor website. The attorneys general indicated they would take further legal action if the Administration tries to block this funding.
The group of 14 attorneys general affirmed their commitment to upholding state laws that protect access to gender-affirming care. "State attorneys general will continue to enforce state laws that provide access to gender-affirming care, in states where such enforcement authority exists, and we will challenge any unlawful effort by the Trump Administration to restrict access to it in our jurisdictions," the statement said in the release. The coalition includes attorneys general from California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin.
