Fifteen attorneys general from across the country released a joint statement Wednesday declaring they will protect sex-change procedures for children in defiance of President Donald Trump’s executive order.

Trump signed the executive order in late January titled “Protecting Children From Chemical And Surgical Mutilation.” Its stated aim is to restrict “chemical and surgical” sex-change procedures for minors.

“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” the executive order stated. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”

The attorneys general signed a statement of their own claiming, “Gender-affirming care is essential, lifesaving medical treatment.”

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The joint statement declares, “State attorneys general will continue to enforce state laws that provide access to gender-affirming care, in states where such enforcement authority exists, and we will challenge any unlawful effort by the Trump administration to restrict access to it in our jurisdictions.” 

The statement argued Trump is wrong about “the science and the law” to challenge the accessibility of life-altering gender procedures.

“Despite what the Trump administration has suggested, there is no connection between female genital mutilation and gender-affirming care, and no federal law makes gender-affirming care unlawful. President Trump cannot change that by Executive Order,” the statement read. 

The statement also cited a “critical win from a federal court” that unpaused the Trump administration’s freezing of funds, saying as a result, “federal funding to institutions that provide gender-affirming care continues to be available, irrespective of President Trump’s recent executive order. If the federal administration takes additional action to impede this critical funding, we will not hesitate to take further legal action.”

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The states that joined in the statement are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Wisconsin. 

In Illinois, under Democratic Attorney General Kwame Raoul, The Chicago Tribune reported that multiple hospital systems in Illinois are going full-speed ahead on transgender procedures for children.

“A Rush spokesman said the hospital system is still providing gender-affirming care for minors,” the local news outlet reported. “Lurie Children’s Hospital said in a statement Wednesday that it ‘is proud to provide access to comprehensive, family-centric, and developmentally appropriate healthcare in a safe and inclusive clinical space. We are reviewing the recent Executive Orders addressing gender care and assessing any potential impact to the clinical services we offer to our patient-families.’”

The Tribune reported further that “Howard Brown Health, which receives federal funds to care for low-income patients and specializes in care for patients who are LGBTQ+, said in a statement Tuesday, ‘The order has no immediate impact on our operations, and we will be monitoring developments working with our partners. We are continuing to provide gender-affirming care to all patients who rely on our services and remain committed to improving the health of trans and gender diverse communities.’”