The State of Florida is taking a hard look at medical and academic organizations advocating for gender-affirming care for minors, issuing subpoenas to nearly two dozen of them in November, per reporting from The Daily Caller.
The subpoenas come as a response to a lawsuit filed by activists against a new Medicaid rule that would no longer cover gender-affirming care.
The rule, which was implemented in August, covers treatments and procedures that facilitate sex changes, such as hormone treatments or sex change surgeries.
The Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA) is seeking information from the 20 organizations, which include the American Pediatric Association, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association, Pediatric Endocrine Society, Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine, and Yale University.
Court documents show that the AHCA wants information on the organizations’ stance on “gender-affirming” care, policies adopted to treat gender dysphoria, side effects associated with those policies and treatments, how the organizations are organized, and how many of their members voted to support those policies and why the organizations wanted to file an amicus brief in the Florida case.
The case, Dekker v. Marstiller, was filed on behalf of two 12-year-old children and argued that the Medicaid rule violated the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution.
However, a federal judge denied the request in October, ruling that the question at hand was one for the Medicaid statute, not the Constitution.
Since then, the AHCA has been gathering evidence from the organizations involved, who have been pushing for gender-affirming care for minors.
The evidence is expected to be used as a basis for the state’s arguments against the lawsuit.
Florida is now one of ten states that does not cover sex-change treatments under Medicaid.
The outcome of the case could have significant implications for the future of healthcare in the state, particularly when it comes to gender-affirming care for minors.
The New York Times reported at the time:
Florida has effectively banned medications and surgery for new adolescent patients seeking gender transitions after an unprecedented vote by the state’s medical board. The move makes Florida one of several states to restrict what’s known as gender-affirming care for adolescents, but the first to do so through the actions of its Board of Medicine, whose 14 members were appointed by Gov. Ron DeSantis. The strategy circumvented the Republican-controlled State Legislature, which had twice declined to take up a bill aiming to restrict such treatment. The board voted 6-3 (with five others not present) on Friday to adopt a new standard of care that forbids doctors to prescribe puberty blockers and hormones, or perform surgeries, until transgender patients are 18. Exceptions will be allowed for children who are already receiving the treatments.
