Attorney General William Tong has made it clear: Connecticut commits to protecting access to gender-affirming care for young people, even as President Donald Trump has signed an executive order restricting federal support for that “life-saving care.”
Tong announced in a Wednesday press release that he has joined a coalition of 14 other attorneys general in committing to protecting gender-affirming care, in the wake of a Jan. 28 executive order signed by Trump titled “Protecting Children From Chemical And Surgical Mutilation.”
That coalition has released a statement, arguing that the executive order “is wrong on the science and the law. Despite what the Trump Administration has suggested, there is no connection between ‘female genital mutilation’ and gender-affirming care, and no federal law makes gender-affirming care unlawful. President Trump cannot change that by Executive Order.”
After a federal judge blocked a Trump administration freeze on federal funding, the Department of Justice has stated that “federal agencies cannot pause, freeze, impede, block, cancel, or terminate any awards or obligations on the basis of the OMB memo, or on the basis of the President’s recently issued Executive Orders.”
Therefore, the attorneys’ general statement argues, “This means that federal funding to institutions that provide gender-affirming care continues to be available, irrespective of President Trump’s recent Executive Order.” If further action is taken to restrict funding, “we will not hesitate to take further legal action.”
Connecticut is a state with laws that provide access to gender-affirming care, and with authority to enforce those laws, Tong confirmed. And that care is necessary health care, and those decisions “should be made by patients, families, and doctors, not by a politician trying to use his power to restrict your freedoms.”
“Despite what the Trump Administration has suggested, there is no connection between female genital mutilation and gender affirming care,” the statement continues. “President Trump cannot rewrite the ‘female genital mutilation’ statute by Executive Order in an attempt to scare health care providers into eliminating critical and life-saving care for young people.”