AG Rayfield: Judge Rejects Trump’s Latest Attempt to Limit Health Care Ruling in Oregon-Led Case for Families

Attorney General Dan Rayfield today issued the following statement after a federal judge denied the Trump administration's motion to narrow a sweeping court ruling that blocked U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s directive threatening to cut Medicare and Medicaid funding from providers of gender-affirming care for minors.

"Every family deserves the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions with their doctors," said Attorney General Rayfield. "That principle is what this fight has always been about. We will keep standing up for the families in Oregon who deserve to make these decisions for themselves."

Background

In December 2025, Secretary Kennedy issued a directive warning doctors and hospitals that they could lose Medicare and Medicaid funding if they kept providing gender-affirming care to minors. Oregon led of coalition of more than 20 other states in suing, arguing that the federal government simply doesn't have the power to make that kind of threat, and that Kennedy skipped the legal steps required to make a change like this in the first place.

In April 2026, a federal court agreed with the states and struck down the Kennedy directive entirely. The court ruled that Kennedy overstepped his authority, skipped required legal procedures, and interfered with states' own power to regulate medical care and run their Medicaid programs.

Afterward, the Trump administration asked the court to scale back that ruling, so it would apply only to a narrow set of federal officials instead of blocking the directive across the board.

Today, the court made it clear that the original ruling still stands: Secretary Kennedy has no authority whatsoever to set medical standards of care for gender-affirming treatment. In our system, the States regulate the practice of medicine, not the federal government.