Erin Reed of Erin in the Morning:

Six weeks before a new federal rule stripping Medicaid and CHIP funding for transgender healthcare is set to take effect nationwide, a coalition of 21 attorneys general and one governor has filed a lawsuit to block it. The coalition, co-led by California Attorney General Rob Bonta alongside the attorneys general of Illinois, Maryland, Connecticut, and Massachusetts, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The lawsuit targets a rule published on Aug. 13 that bars federal reimbursement for puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery for anyone under 18 on Medicaid or under 19 on CHIP, and which could do significant harm to transgender youth in these states, who currently have that care covered. The lawsuit follows an earlier successful suit that blocked the administration from threatening hospitals and doctors with exclusion from Medicare and Medicaid for providing that care. A companion rule that would have barred hospitals outright, through Medicare “conditions of participation,” was never finalized, meaning no in-tact federal rule requires hospitals to stop providing gender-affirming care to transgender youth, though roughly 40 dropped their programs anyway and many have not restored them.

Reed’s included map of the states that are suing is a stark illustration of the rapidly dwindling number of places in America where transgender people might feel even a modicum of safety. Unsurprisingly, the majority of these states also tend to vote for Democrats.