A federal court in Maryland issued a temporary restraining order on Thursday suspending Donald Trump’s executive order banning federal funds from going to hospitals that provide gender-affirming care for transgender patients under 19 — and it appears to actually be working to undo the initial impact of the order.
The executive order, while not a legal directive with immediate ramifications for medical systems, spurred hospitals across the country to pause care for trans youth in anticipation of threats to their funding.
Now, though, the court’s restraining order has caused at least one medical system to reverse course. The University of Virginia health system, one of the largest hospital systems in the state, will resume providing gender-affirming care for trans youth, NOTUS has learned.
“Now that a federal court has issued a temporary restraining order suspending the federal executive order on gender-affirming care, UVA Health will resume the provision of those services that were previously paused in response to the order,” spokesperson Eric Swensen said in a statement to NOTUS. “UVA Health will continue to monitor legal developments in this case and provide our patients with the best care possible under Virginia and federal law.”
Trump’s executive order prompted Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares to send a memo warning hospitals that the care must be halted and that continuing would place hospitals at “significant legal risk” and cause them to face “substantial financial exposure.”
In addition to UVA Health, VCU Health and the Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU said that they would pause care following the AG’s letter. After the court order came down on Thursday, they said they were still determining it’s effects.
“We are reviewing today’s order to determine an appropriate course of action,” the hospitals said in a Thursday night statement. “VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU’s doors have remained open, and will continue to be open, to all patients and their families for screening, counseling and all health care needs not affected by the Executive Order.”
Hospitals in other states said that they were still in the process of determining how to respond to the judge’s order.
A spokesperson for Children’s Hospital Colorado told NOTUS that hospital officials would “carefully evaluate the judge’s order once it is available in writing and determine its impact upon our model of care.”
A Denver Health spokesperson, Dane Roper, said the system’s pause on gender-affirming surgery and new appointments for transition-related medications for patients under 19 would remain in place for the time being.
Other hospitals that canceled gender-affirming care appointments for trans patients under 19 included NYU Langone and Children’s National Hospital in Washington. They did not immediately respond to NOTUS’ requests for comment.
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Margaret Manto is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Oriana González is a reporter at NOTUS.