BALTIMORE — Attorney General Anthony Brown is back in federal court joining yet another lawsuit against the Trump Administration.
Brown and his cohort of fellow Attorneys General from more than a dozen other Democratic led states are accusing the Department of Justice of intimidating and threatening medical professionals providing youth gender-affirming care.
Since President Trump returned to office in January, the White House has cracked down on treatments like puberty blockers or hormone therapy for anyone under 19-years-old.
On occasion, those diagnosed with gender dysphoria undergo sex reassignment surgery.
The DOJ says that amounts to “chemical and surgical mutilation.”
MORE: FBI wants people to report doctors, hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors
Trump has since signed executive orders halting federal funding for hospitals or clinics offering such procedures.
A federal judge in Maryland ruled against the cuts in February, but that was before the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a Tennessee law barring gender affirming care for minors.
The battle over funding remains in litigation.
Brown's newest argument, however, is the Tennessee law has no bearing on Maryland or other plaintiff states because they still permit healthcare for transgender, intersex, and nonbinary youth.
"In Maryland, laws protect patients from discrimination based on gender identity, and healthcare providers are required to treat all patients fairly and without bias," says Brown.
Nonetheless, many prominent healthcare facilities are in the midst of either pausing or ending youth gender-affirming care.
Among them — Kaiser Permanente, The Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, Stanford Medicine, Pittsburgh's UPMC, The Children’s Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Like many previous lawsuits Brown filed this latest one in Massachusetts, where its overwhelming majority of Democratic appointed judges have proven likely to side with the states.
Joining Maryland in this case are the states of California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin, plus the Governor of Pennsylvania, and Washington D.C.
