A federal judge in the United States has ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to continue providing funding for hospitals offering gender-affirming treatments for people under the age of 19 nationwide.

Judge Brendan Hurson of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland issued the restraining order in the lawsuit filed by six transgender individuals between the ages of 12 and 18, along with parents and advocacy groups against Mr Trump’s administration. 

The lawsuit was filed in response to an executive order issued by Mr Trump hours after he returned to the White House, which sought to stop the federal government from funding transition treatments for individuals below 19. 

“The goal is protection,” the judge, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, said in his ruling on Thursday. “But this seems to put these children at extreme risk.”

This is a second setback for the Trump administration’s broad policies to stop recognising transgender people at the federal level after a judge had earlier this month blocked Mr Trump’s directive to withhold gender-transition medical treatment for federal prisoners.

Judge Royce Lamberth of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia also stopped the current administration from housing transgender female inmates with males.