Hospitals cut back on 'gender transition' treatments for kids after Trump order

In January, just beginning his second term, President Donald Trump signed the executive order "Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation", the Trump Administration's pressure in this regard has been so serious and effective that already several high-profile hospitals have announced that they reduced, paused or will close altogether their "gender transition" programs for young people. This is one of the most important cultural and social accomplishments the Administration can achieve.

In recent years we have seen shocking testimonies come to light from young people who underwent "gender transition" treatments and who today have even sued the hospitals that performed these procedures on them, due to the physical and psychological damage this brought them. A breast removal or a long process of hormonization are treatments that are impossible to reverse both physically and in terms of the changes and effects they cause on mental health.

This week Children's Medical Center of Connecticut announced that they will begin phasing out their gender care program for patients under the age of 19. "In recent months, we have been carefully reviewing the long-term sustainability of our gender care program in light of an increasingly complex and evolving landscape, thoughtful consideration and guidance from medical and legal experts, we have made the difficult decision to begin winding down this program for patients under the age of 19." Said Jim Shmerling, the medical center's president and CEO.

A couple of days later, on Thursday, Yale New Haven Health also issued a statement assuring that it is ending the drug treatment component of the pediatric gender reassignment care program. Also this week, in Washington, D.C., Children's National Hospital announced it would suspend prescribing transition medications effective August 30. In addition, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center announced that its physicians would no longer administer puberty blockers or hormone therapy to children under the age of 19.

The executive order signed in January by President Trump stated that this Administration would not "fund, sponsor, promote, assist or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another." And, according to the White House, "chemical and surgical mutilation" includes the use of puberty blockers, sex hormones and surgical procedures.

This executive order by the president has faced several legal hurdles but the Administration has continued to pursue its goal. First a temporary nationwide blockade following an order from a federal judge in Baltimore, who asserted that the Administration exceeded its authority and that the order violated the right to equal protection. It was followed by a lawsuit in Seattle, where a federal judge blocked government health agencies from complying with the executive order in the states of Washington, Oregon, Minnesota and Colorado. The Trump administration has appealed both cases, and the legal fight continues, but at the same time has sought other ways to pressure hospitals to comply with the order.

A letter from Children's Hospital Los Angeles administrators to the institution's staff asserts that more than 65% of the hospital's $2 billion annual funding comes from federal sources and that the Trump Administration's threats putting funding at risk have created "immediate and unsustainable pressure on our fiscal resilience."

While many LGTBI activists point to the Administration's fight as a danger to their community, the reality is that millions of Americans celebrate no longer performing these types of procedures on minors. It is also important to note that while the conservative movement has been fighting for years in various arenas to try to stop these procedures, it is only now that we are seeing the rollback and even the closing of "gender transition" programs in major hospitals. This triumph is fundamentally thanks to an Administration that has decided to take up this fight even when it knew it would have legal challenges, and that has used every possible tool to exert pressure.