Federal judge orders Florida agency provide proof to support Medicaid ban on gender affirming care

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As culture wars brew in Florida over "woke" education and transgender females competing in girls' sports, transgender advocates are fighting to ensure Florida Medicaid dollars will cover puberty blockers and gender reassignment surgeries for youth and adults.

Last September, LGBTQ rights groups filed a lawsuit on behalf of two transgender minors and two transgender adults against Florida's Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA), after the agency barred Medicaid recipients from using the government funds to pay for "gender-affirming care."

A June report by Florida's AHCA leading up to the ban cited concerns these treatments were "experimental" with "potential for harmful long term affects." 

This week U.S. Judge Robert Hinkle ordered attorneys for the agency to provide documents to back up these claims. 

People hold signs during a joint board meeting of the Florida Board of Medicine and the Florida Board of Osteopathic Medicine gather to establish new guidelines limiting gender-affirming care in Florida, on Nov. 4, 2022.  (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda/Orlando Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

FLORIDA MEDICAID SEES ‘SOARING INCREASE’ OF KIDS RECEIVING PUBERTY BLOCKERS, IRREVERSIBLE SURGERY

In their report, the AHCA said they followed "available medical evidence and the assessment of five medical experts, including health care researchers who studied the quality of the evidence relied upon for ‘gender affirming’ care," to inform their decision.

But in a six-page-order on Tuesday, the federal judge said the state agency must hand over any communication between the AHCA and its experts by February 14 as they were an "essential part" of the rule-making process.

AHCA lawyers had argued that "while the desired documents were created for rulemaking purposes, they were also intended for use in litigation they knew would follow the adoption of the rule, making them protected documents by law," The Hill reported.

But the federal judge rebuffed this argument.  

"Either the experts were retained to assist in an honest evaluative process—in which event their communications were not within work-product protection — or the rulemaking process was a sham and the real goal was to prevail in the anticipated litigation — a possibility the defendants could embrace to win the discovery battle only by acknowledging that the rulemaking process was fatally flawed, or nearly so," the outlet cited the judge as saying.

Demonstrators gather on the steps of the Montana State Capitol protesting anti-LGBTQ+ legislation on March 15, 2021, in Helena, Mont. Montana health officials have made permanent a rule that blocks transgender people from changing their birth certificates even if they undergo gender-confirmation surgery. (Thom Bridge/Independent Record via AP, File) ((Thom Bridge/Independent Record via AP, File))

JUDGE DENIES INJUNCTION AGAINST FLORIDA MEDICAID RULE DENYING DRUG, SURGICAL TREATMENTS FOR GENDER DYSPHORIA

The lawsuit comes after the state program experienced a huge increase in transgender youth receiving medical treatment or therapy with Medicaid dollars.

When the ban went into effect, the AHCA shared with Fox News Digital statistics revealing a 270% increase in children on Medicaid receiving puberty blockers from 2017-2021, a 63% increase in children receiving behavioral therapy to treat gender dysphoria, and a 166% spike in youth taking testosterone for dysphoria, all in the same time period.

Last March the Biden Administration also endorsed gender-reassignment surgery and hormone treatments for minors. 

Starting this year, taxpayers will also finance the expansion of gender-affirming care benefits for federal employees, Fox News Digital previously reported.

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Fox News' Jon Brown and Patrick Hauf contributed to this report.