Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel has joined a coalition of 16 states and the District of Columbia in filing a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict access to medically necessary health care for transgender, intersex and nonbinary youth under 19.
The lawsuit targets two executive orders — 14168 and 14187 — signed by President Trump that seek to restrict federal grants and funding to institutions providing transgender health care to young people, even in states like Michigan where such care remains legal and protected.
“The Trump administration is attempting to strip away lawful, essential health care from vulnerable youth,” Nessel said in a Michigan Department of the Attorney General news release announcing the legal action. “These orders are illegal and dangerous and have no medical or scientific basis. I will continue to protect families, defend doctors and stop politicians from putting our kids’ lives at risk.”
The first executive order, signed on Trump’s inaugural day, declared that the United States would only recognize two sexes and called for ending federal support for what it termed “gender ideology.” The second order focused specifically on restricting medically necessary health care for youth, defining everyone under 19 as a child — despite most states, including Michigan, considering 18-year-olds legal adults — and describing recognized medical treatments as “chemical and surgical mutilation.”
Since the orders were issued, the Department of Justice has begun issuing subpoenas to health care providers under the guise of criminal law enforcement. The attorneys general argue these tactics lack legal basis and are designed to intimidate providers from offering lifesaving care that remains lawful under state law.
“Since these orders were issued, the federal government has not stopped bullying trans people and their health care providers,” said Emme Zanotti, senior director of Movement Building & Political Affairs at Equality Michigan, in a news release. “They’ve repeatedly harassed health care systems, threatened to defund them for providing legal, evidence-based care and even opened a ‘whistleblower’ form to report providers, which the FBI promoted on X.”
The pressure campaign is already showing results. Providers in some states have begun reducing or eliminating services, while patients report canceling appointments amid confusion about continuing their care. The disruption has reached even progressive areas like Los Angeles, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
In the Michigan Department of the Attorney General press release, Dr. Patricia Wells, medical director of The Corner Health Center, warned that the federal actions endanger rather than protect children. “These policies do not protect children; they endanger them,” Well wrote. “They undermine trust in the medical system and place affirming providers in an impossible position, forcing hospitals to close clinics and providers to stop offering the very care that helps young people survive and thrive.”
Wells emphasized the medical necessity of the treatments being targeted. “Forcing young people to experience unwanted pubertal changes will cause worsening dysphoria and unwelcome physical developments. The ability to pause puberty gives patients and their parents time to get to the right diagnosis and carefully consider their options and embark on an effective treatment path.”
Medical experts and national medical associations widely agree that such care is not only necessary for many transgender young people but can be lifesaving. Research shows that denying this care worsens mental health outcomes, increasing rates of depression, anxiety and suicide.
In the news release, Tess Miller, a mid-Michigan parent, highlighted how the federal overreach threatens parental rights. “In the state of Michigan, it is my fundamental right to make decisions about ‘the care, teaching, and education of my child,'” Miller said. “Unfortunately, the current administration is actively working to eliminate my parental rights through overreaching executive orders.”
The legal challenge comes at a crucial time for Michigan families. The state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression, meaning that refusing to provide trans health care to those who need it would constitute a civil rights violation.
“We don’t want that to happen here in Michigan,” Zanotti wrote in Equality Michigan’s news release regarding care disruptions seen elsewhere. “That’s why we’re thanking AG Nessel for her decisive action to protect Michigan families and our health care.”
Erin Knott, executive director of Equality Michigan, praised the attorney general’s action in the Attorney General news release. “Health care decisions for kids should be made by parents and doctors, not by politicians,” Knott wrote. “The federal government is using funding as a weapon to force providers to abandon their patients and override parents’ rights to make health care decisions for their own children. We commend Attorney General Nessel for protecting Michigan families from devastating threats to cut essential health care.”
The coalition’s lawsuit asks the court to block the administration’s actions and prevent enforcement of the executive orders, arguing they violate the Constitution and exceed federal authority. The case was led by attorneys general from New York, California, Massachusetts, Illinois and Connecticut, with participation from Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, the District of Columbia and the Governor of Pennsylvania.
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