Attorney General Bonta Secures Ruling Blocking Trump Administration’s Illegal Attempt to Limit Access to Gender-Affirming Care

OAKLAND — California Attorney General Rob Bonta yesterday secured a ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon blocking U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s December 18, 2025 declaration (Kennedy Declaration). The Kennedy Declaration claims that gender-affirming care fails to meet professionally recognized standards of care and that, as such, HHS may disqualify any doctors or hospitals that provide such care from federal healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid. By threatening to disqualify providers from Medicare and Medicaid, the Trump Administration has sought to bully doctors and hospitals into no longer providing medically necessary gender-affirming care. 

“This ruling marks a major victory in our fight against the Trump Administration’s cruel campaign against transgender Americans,” said Attorney General Bonta. “The Kennedy Declaration sought to unlawfully bully doctors and hospitals into halting crucial care for transgender individuals nationwide. I am pleased the court has ruled in our favor, and I will continue to fight to protect Americans and the providers they trust from this Administration’s hateful agenda.”

On December 23, 2025, Attorney General Bonta joined a coalition of 18 other attorneys general and one governor in filing a lawsuit challenging the Kennedy Declaration. 

In yesterday's ruling, the court granted the states’ motion for summary judgment, declaring that the Kennedy Declaration lacks the authority to establish superseding standards of care to exclude providers from federal healthcare programs.  

BACKGROUND

Attorney General Bonta is committed to defending transgender individuals’ right to safely access medically necessary gender-affirming care and to protecting medical providers’ ability to continue providing medically necessary care for their patients. In August 2025, Attorney General Bonta co-led a multistate coalition in filing a lawsuit that challenges the Trump Administration’s executive order attempting to restrict the provision of medically necessary gender-affirming care for individuals under the age of 19 by threatening providers with civil and criminal prosecution under specious legal theories. In December 2025, he joined a coalition of 19 attorneys general in filing amicus briefs opposing efforts by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission to undermine the independence of scientific organizations that support medically necessary gender-affirming care. In late 2025, he filed amicus briefs opposing the U.S. Department of Justice’s (U.S. DOJ) subpoenas for private medical records, including patient records, related to gender-affirming care at Children’s Hospital Colorado, Boston Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. In January 2026, he filed a lawsuit against Rady Children’s Health for unlawfully closing its gender-affirming care program for patients under the age of 19.