2025-15 AG NEWS RELEASE – ATTORNEY GENERAL LOPEZ AND 13 OTHER ATTORNEYS GENERAL ISSUE JOINT STATEMENT ON PROTECTING ACCESS TO GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE

 

STATE OF HAWAIʻI

KA MOKU ʻĀINA O HAWAIʻI

 

DEPARTMENT OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL

KA ʻOIHANA O KA LOIO KUHINA

 

JOSH GREEN, M.D.
GOVERNOR

KE KIAʻĀINA

 

ANNE LOPEZ

ATTORNEY GENERAL

LOIO KUHINA

 

 

ATTORNEY GENERAL LOPEZ AND 13 OTHER ATTORNEYS GENERAL ISSUE JOINT STATEMENT ON PROTECTING ACCESS TO GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE

 

News Release 2025-15

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                       

February 4, 2025

 

HONOLULU –Attorney General Anne Lopez today joined a coalition of 14 attorneys general to reaffirm their commitment to protecting access to gender-affirming care in the face of the Trump Administration’s recent Executive Order. The coalition released the following statement: 

 

“As state attorneys general, we stand firmly in support of healthcare policies that respect the dignity and rights of all people. Health care decisions should be made by patients, families and doctors, not by a politician trying to restrict freedoms. Gender-affirming care is essential, lifesaving medical treatment that supports individuals in living as their authentic selves.

 

The Trump Administration’s recent 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.  

 

Last week, attorneys general secured a critical win from a federal court that directed the federal government to resume funding that had been frozen by the Trump Administration. In response to the court’s order, the Department of Justice has sent a notice stating 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.” 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 the federal administration takes additional action to impede this critical funding, we will not hesitate to take further legal action. 

 

State attorneys general will continue to enforce state laws that provide access to gender-affirming care, in states where such enforcement authority exists, and we will challenge any unlawful effort by the Trump Administration to restrict access to it in our jurisdictions.” 

 

Joining Attorney General Lopez in issuing this statement are the attorneys general of California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Nevada, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin.

 

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Media contacts:

Dave Day

Special Assistant to the Attorney General

Office: 808-586-1284                                                  

Email: [email protected]        

Web: http://ag.hawaii.gov

 

Toni Schwartz
Public Information Officer
Hawai‘i Department of the Attorney General
Office: 808-586-1252
Cell: 808-379-9249
Email: [email protected] 

Web: http://ag.hawaii.gov