Why Should Delaware Care?
Youth experiencing gender dysphoria face higher risks of depression and suicide, but use of puberty blockers and hormone treatment has been shown to make a difference. Now, federal threats over that treatment are restricting families’ ability to access gender-affirming care in Delaware.
Delaware has joined a multi-state lawsuit against the Trump administration, asking a federal court to block the president’s policies that restrict gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The lawsuit, filed last week by Delaware Attorney General Kathy Jennings and coalition of states — including Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Maryland — takes particular aim at President Donald Trump’s threats to pull federal funds from hospitals that offer gender-affirming care.
The states argue that threatening hospitals with civil and criminal prosecution for providing transgender youth with care has no grounding in federal law. They also claim the Trump administration is engaging in government overreach, stating the 10th Amendment to the Constitution ensures that the regulation of medicine is a “core traditional police power belonging to the States.”
In a press release sent after the lawsuit was filed, Jennings derided Trump’s policies as the “time-tested tactics of demagogues.”
“These stunts make kids into political props and do nothing to help Americans. They are despicable, dangerous, and illegal,” Jennings said.
In response to the lawsuit, a spokesperson from the U.S. Department of Justice stated that the agency will use “ every legal and law enforcement tool available to protect innocent children from being mutilated under the guise of ‘care.’”
In the complaint, Jennings and other states argue that Trump’s conflation of “chemical and surgical mutilation” with gender-affirming care is “offensive and inaccurate” and not a medically recognized term.
Trump’s claims against gender-affirming medical treatments have also been challenged by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
One hospital backs down
Jennings’ lawsuit follows Nemours Children’s Hospital’s recent decision to officially stop accepting new patients into its gender-affirming care clinic for medical treatment.
The hospital has been providing medical treatment to the transgender community since 2018, and has been the only known facility in Delaware to administer puberty blockers and hormone therapy to transgender youth.
Late last month, Nemours told Spotlight Delaware in a statement that the decision to stop accepting new patients was a result of “evolving communications and actions from federal agencies directed at healthcare providers related to gender-affirming care.”
The hospital’s decision became public just after Gov. Matt Meyer had declared Delaware a “sanctuary state” for gender-affirming care. As part of the move, he codified protections to shield patients and doctors from prosecution from other states and to safeguard patient data.
The Nemours Foundation, which operates facilities across Delaware, Florida, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, reported that they received more than $800 million in funding from Medicaid and other federal grants in 2023. That figure represented close to half of their $2 billion revenue for that year.
Federal action against gender-affirming care
In January, Trump signed two executive orders that rejected the concept of gender identity, banned gender-affirming care for individuals under the age of 19, and threatened to withhold federal funding from institutions that continued to provide such care.
Following the order, federal agencies started cracking down on hospitals to ensure they were not providing such care.
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo in April stating that the Department of Justice would investigate any medical providers that “mislead the public about the long-term side effects of chemical and surgical mutilations.” The DOJ has since sent more than 20 subpoenas to providers who have provided gender-affirming care.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Health and Human Services Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. also gave hospitals 30 days to submit their data and policies on gender-affirming care, and instructed hospitals to disregard treatment standards from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH).
According to the lawsuit, criminal investigations have already been launched into children’s hospitals that provide gender-affirming care in California, Colorado, and Massachusetts.
The heightened oversight and outward threats from federal agencies have created significant uncertainty for health care providers, such as Nemours, which rely on federal funds.
Trump’s policies have prompted more than 15 other hospital systems across the nation to limit access to gender-affirming care for youth, including the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Penn Medicine, Virtua Health, Kaiser Permanente, and Children’s National Hospital.
