SEATTLE \u2014 The future of federal funding for some health care providers was debated Thursday at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Seattle, where the Washington attorney general\u2019s office defended gender-affirming care against what it called \u201cunconstitutional\u201d actions by the Trump administration.<\/p>\n
Gender-affirming care for minors and adults remains legal in Washington state. The court is considering whether the federal government can withhold funding from providers that offer such care.<\/p>\n
Joanne Levy, who works at the Rainbow Center in Tacoma, an LGBTQ advocacy group, said the organization has been overwhelmed with questions from people uncertain about the future of gender-affirming care in Washington.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying to protect these very valuable health care providers,\u201d Levy told KOMO News.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe executive orders that we challenge in this case are profoundly harmful and hateful, but for today\u2019s purposes, what matters most is that they\u2019re unconstitutional,\u201d Washington Solicitor General Noah Purcell said during Thursday\u2019s hearing.<\/p>\n
The case stems from executive orders issued in early 2025 that threaten to block federal funding for hospitals and clinics that provide gender-affirming care to minors.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo limit federal funding of medical institutions that perform sex transition procedures on minors and to ensure that federal funds are not used to promote gender ideology,\u201d said Eric MacArthur, deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department\u2019s Civil Division, describing the administration\u2019s position.<\/p>\n
Washington Attorney General Nick Brown sued the Trump administration in 2025, and a federal district court judge issued an injunction blocking enforcement of the policies in the state while the lawsuit proceeds. On Thursday, Justice Department attorneys argued the lawsuit is premature because it does not demonstrate how specific federal agencies have acted in response to the executive orders.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is, in effect, telling the agencies, \u2018I want you to do the analysis. Here\u2019s the general policy I\u2019m setting forth,\u201d MacArthur said.<\/p>\n
In January, Mary Bridge Children\u2019s Hospital in Tacoma announced it had closed its clinic that treated gender dysphoria, saying it did so \u201cto avoid being penalized or investigated by the federal government.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying to fill the holes in terms of finding health care providers and work with the families to provide lifesaving measures, not only from a health perspective but a mental health perspective,\u201d Levy said.<\/p>\n
Federal officials are asking the appeals court to overturn the injunction and allow the administration\u2019s policies to take effect. Washington state argues the executive orders are unconstitutional and interfere with state-regulated medical care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe president has no authority to apply these provisions,\u201d Purcell said.<\/p>\n
A written ruling from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals is expected in the coming weeks or months. In a news release, Brown said his office is confident the courts will continue to side with Washington and the Constitution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SEATTLE \u2014 The future of federal funding for some health care providers was debated Thursday at the Ninth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":506967,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-506966","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506966","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=506966"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/506966\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/506967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=506966"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=506966"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=506966"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}