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Some hospitals across the country have been canceling appointments for transgender kids. The reason - President Trump signed an executive order saying that any institution providing the care would be cut off from federal funding. As NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin reports, LGBTQ rights groups say that Trump cannot do that.
SELENA SIMMONS-DUFFIN, BYLINE: Kristen Chapman spent months trying to get an appointment for her transgender daughter, Willow, at VCU Health in Richmond, Virginia. It was scheduled for January 29.
KRISTEN CHAPMAN: Just a few hours before our appointment, VCU told us they would not be able to provide Willow with care.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Chapman had already moved her family from Tennessee, which has a state gender-affirming care ban for youth. About half of states across the country do. On Tuesday, the ACLU and Lambda Legal sued to block the executive order on behalf of several plaintiffs, including Chapman, who spoke to reporters on a press call.
CHAPMAN: I thought Virginia would be a safe place for me and my daughter. Instead, I am heartbroken, tired and scared.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: ACLU senior counsel Joshua Block, who was also on the call, says Congress has passed laws prohibiting health centers from discriminating against patients on the basis of sex.
JOSHUA BLOCK: Congress said don't discriminate, and President Trump is saying, you have to discriminate.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: On Wednesday, 15 attorneys general - including from California, Maine and Wisconsin - issued a statement warning hospitals they must not cancel appointments or they'll be violating state antidiscrimination laws. There were also protests at several hospitals that canceled appointments, although it was a mixed picture. Even within the same city, some places continued to offer care. The American Hospital Association told NPR they are not providing guidance to hospitals right now about how to navigate this.
Terry Schilling is president of the American Principles Project, which has spent years urging states and the federal government to limit access to what he calls sex trait modification procedures.
TERRY SCHILLING: I think this is fantastic, what President Trump has done to protect children in this country. I think it's got a little bit more to play out.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: He says all eyes are on the Supreme Court, which is set to rule in the coming months on whether a state gender-affirming care ban constitutes sex discrimination, and he says Congress needs to pass a ban on this care for young people into law.
SCHILLING: We have to get votes in Congress. We have to hold senators and members of Congress accountable for these procedures.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: Kate Eyer is a professor of law at Rutgers. She says, with this executive order, the president is trying to attach new conditions to federal grants to hospitals and clinics.
KATE EYER: The president doesn't have any unilateral authority to do this.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: In ordinary times, she says, hospitals could simply take an order like this to court and trust they would win. Still, there is a lot of uncertainty about how the courts and Congress are going to respond to this order, and federal funding could theoretically be cut off to hospitals.
EYER: So that really does put regulated entities in a predicament.
SIMMONS-DUFFIN: The ACLU lawsuit is asking the court for a temporary restraining order while the legal process plays out. In the meantime, hospitals and clinics are making their best guesses on how to proceed, and families and trans young people are waiting. Selena Simmons-Duffin, NPR News.
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