TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) \u2014 A Kansas judge on Friday protected access to gender-affirming care for transgender minors as the nation\u2019s largest children\u2019s hospital moved to restrict such care in Texas, buckling under pressure from the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
Texas Children\u2019s Hospital, based in Houston, said in a statement that it had agreed to a legal settlement \u201cto protect our resources from endless and costly litigation.\u201d The hospital, which serves more than 1 million patients a year, stopped providing hormone treatments for transgender children and teens in 2022<\/a>, a year before the state banned such care, but still faced a yearslong investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton\u2019s office.<\/p>\n Paxton and the Trump administration said the hospital would pay Texas $10 million and would be required to open what he called a \u201cdetransition clinic\u201d to \u201creverse the damage\u201d from gender-affirming care, which he\u2019s described as child abuse.<\/p>\n Most major medical groups say access to gender-affirming care is important for people with gender dysphoria. Transgender teens, parents and providers have described it as life-saving for kids who are depressed or suicidal because their gender identities do not match the sex assigned to them at birth.<\/p>\n Gender-affirming care may include counseling, medications that block puberty, hormone therapy to produce physical changes or surgeries, although those are rare for minors.<\/p>\n Twenty-seven states have limited or banned gender-affirming care for minors, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2025<\/a> that they could do so under the U.S. Constitution. But in Kansas, State District Court Judge Carl Folsom III ruled Friday that the state\u2019s ban, passed last year, is likely to violate the state Constitution. Folsom\u2019s order blocking the ban is set to remain in place until a lawsuit filed by two transgender teenagers and their parents is over. The trial has not yet been scheduled.<\/p>\n President Donald Trump has aggressively sought to roll back<\/a> transgender rights. During his second term, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has moved to use its regulatory power<\/a> to block gender-affirming care for minors, and the DOJ has demanded access to providers\u2019 private records,<\/a> putting pressure on hospitals<\/a> that often rely on federal funding to operate.<\/p>\n A Kansas judge protects gender-affirming care<\/p>\n Republican Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach promised to appeal the decision Friday, calling it \u201ca stark example of judicial activism\u201d that \u201cinvented a new constitutional right.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEven though the Kansas Constitution says nothing about it, the judge created a new right of parents to obtain otherwise-illegal treatments for their children,\u201d Kobach said in a statement.<\/p>\n The judge said the law interferes with parents\u2019 right to make medical decisions for their children. In a lengthy opinion, he described gender-affirming care as \u201cthe treatment with the most evidence of being helpful to treat gender dysphoria.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Kansas Constitution protects personal autonomy,\u201d Folsom wrote, citing the state\u2019s Bill of Rights. \u201cThis personal autonomy includes the fundamental right of parents to the care, custody and control of their minor children.\u201d<\/p>\n Kansas courts have previously declared that the state Constitution offers more protection for individual rights than the U.S. Constitution. In 2019, the state Supreme Court declared that Kansas protects a person\u2019s bodily autonomy, which guarantees access to abortion.<\/a><\/p>\n Kobach, like other opponents of gender-affirming care for minors, portrayed it as \u201cexperimental\u201d and harmful, but Folsom disagreed.<\/p>\n His order said the teenagers who sued, identified as Lily Loe and Ryan Roe, had to go to Minnesota and Colorado for treatment, both costing them more for out-of-state care and causing anxiety.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is harmful to withhold medical treatment or withdraw medical treatment in progress that is safe, effective and medically indicated,\u201d Folsom wrote.<\/p>\n A children\u2019s hospital in Texas buckles under AG pressure<\/p>\n In Texas, Paxton, a Republican, hailed the settlement with Texas Children\u2019s Hospital as \u201chistoric\u201d and said it\u2019s a \u201dfundamental shift away from radical \u2018gender\u2019 ideology.\u201d<\/p>\n