Chicago hospital pauses sex change drugs for minors 

A Chicago children’s hospital has paused prescribing sex change drugs to new minor patients after being referred for a federal investigation by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago said it will temporarily stop initiating prescriptions for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for patients younger than 18 who were not already receiving the drugs. Minors already receiving the medications will continue to do so, LifeSiteNews reported. 

“As we await federal court rulings and assess the rapidly evolving legal landscape, at this time, Lurie Children’s will not initiate gender-affirming medications for patients under age 18 who have not previously been treated with these therapies by our team,” hospital spokeswoman Julianne Bardele told local media in a written statement last week. 

She said the decision followed federal action taken earlier this month, as the Trump administration continues its efforts against what it calls “sex-rejecting” procedures. 

“Actions by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including their announcement on Jan. 15 of a referral for an investigation of Lurie Children’s, have resulted in this decision,” Bardele wrote. “This threatens our ability to care for all of our patients.”

HHS referred the hospital to its Office of Inspector General as part of a broader enforcement effort targeting sex change procedures for minors. Other hospitals referred include Boston Children’s Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, NYU Langone Health, Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Oregon, and Nemours Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children in Delaware. Lurie is Chicago’s largest children’s hospital. 

The HHS action follows a broader federal effort to restrict sex change procedures for minors at institutions that receive public funding. The department has proposed rules that would bar hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid from performing sex change surgeries on children and has moved to remove gender dysphoria from certain disability classifications used to challenge restrictions on such procedures. 

HHS General Counsel Mike Stuart said the referrals were necessary to protect children from permanent harm. 

“It is truly unfortunate that today I referred to (OIGATHHS) for full investigation six more hospitals from six different states for allegedly failing to protect our children from sex-rejecting procedures – procedures that cause permanent, terrible harm,” Stuart wrote. “These hospitals appear to continue to operate outside recognized standards of health care and entirely outside (Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s) declaration that sex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective.” 

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. signed a declaration in December stating that sex change procedures for minors are neither safe nor effective. 

“Doctors assume a solemn obligation to protect children,” Kennedy said. “Yet doctors across the country provide needless and irreversible sex-rejecting procedures that violate their sacred Hippocratic oath. 

“So-called ‘gender-affirming care’ has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people,” Kennedy added. “This is not medicine. It is malpractice.”