Groups file lawsuit to end Florida’s ban on gender-affirming care for children

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association support gender-affirming care for adults and adolescents. But medical experts said gender-affirming care for children rarely, if ever, includes surgery. Instead, doctors are more likely to recommend counseling, social transition, and hormone replacement therapy.

“Transgender medical bans also violate equal protection guarantees by prohibiting essential medical treatments needed by teenage plaintiffs because they are transgender,” the lawsuit states. The prosecution does not identify the plaintiffs for security reasons.

The two medical boards approved the new standards for treating gender dysphoria in November at the request of Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo, who said over the summer that the risks associated with surgeries and prescription treatments for children were largely untested and that the medical risks outweighed. benefits.

Florida Department of Health spokeswoman Nikki Whiting said the agency does not comment on ongoing litigation.

The National Center for Lesbian Rights, one of the groups suing the state, said the bans contradicted guidelines backed by medical organizations such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

“The policy unlawfully deprives parents of the right to make informed decisions about their children’s medical treatment and violates the equal protection rights of transgender youth by denying them medically necessary and doctor-recommended health care to treat their gender dysphoria. genre,” the group said in a press release. release.

The plaintiffs plan to file a motion for a preliminary injunction that would end the case until it goes through trial.

State bans on transgender treatment for children followed the development of separate rules by the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration in August that barred the state’s Medicaid program from covering surgeries and hormone blockers.