New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday that she’s leading a coalition of 19 states in filing a lawsuit that aims to stop the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. from blocking surgeries, puberty blockers, and hormone treatments for minors. 

“At the core of this so-called declaration are real people: young people who need care, parents trying to support their children, and doctors who are simply following the best medical evidence available,” James said in a statement. 

In her announcement, James disputed Kennedy’s claim the treatments are “unsafe and ineffective.” 

In their lawsuit, the 19 states claim that the HHS isn’t following legal requirements for policy changes, which include the Administrative Procedure Act and the Medicare and Medicaid statutes. The regulations require agencies to provide the public with notice and an opportunity to comment before making policy changes.

The HHS announced last week it was moving to bar hospitals from offering “the sex-rejecting procedures on children” as a condition of participating in Medicare and Medicaid. The policy change was in line with President Donald Trump's executive order directing the HHS to end the practice. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will release a notice of rulemaking on the policy change in the coming weeks. 

The announcement stated that transgender treatments — which includes puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgical operations — exposes children to irreversible damage, including infertility, impaired sexual function, diminished bone density, altered brain development, and other irreversible physiological effects.

“Children deserve our protection, not experimental interventions performed on them, that carry life-altering risks with no reliable evidence of benefit,” said Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz said in a statement.