Sixteen states are suing the Trump administration to defend transgender youth healthcare access, which has rapidly eroded across the US due to threats from the federal government.

The Democratic attorneys general of California, New York, Massachusetts, Illinois and Connecticut are leading the lawsuit, announced on Friday, which challenges the president’s efforts to eradicate vital medical treatments for trans youth.

The complaint targets one of the president’s first executive orders issued in January, which described puberty blockers and hormone therapy as “chemical and surgical mutilation”, called for federal funds to be withheld from hospitals that provide the treatments and suggested the US Department of Justice could investigate doctors. Those gender-affirming treatments, which