Two major hospitals end transgender mutilation for minors

Two of the largest hospitals in the northeast no longer offer transgender surgeries for minors, according to separate announcements last week.

The change follows the Trump administration’s December warning it would pull Medicaid funding from hospitals that continue to force “malpractice” on children.

“So-called gender affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people,” U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at the HHS meeting. “This is not medicine. It is malpractice.”

NYU Langone Health, a major hospital in Manhattan, and Baystate Health, the second largest hospital in western Massachusetts, announced they will no longer offer “gender-affirming care” for minors, National Review reports. Both hospitals promised to continue counseling for minors but have stopped providing sex-transition surgeries, hormone treatments and puberty blockers.

“Given the recent departure of our medical director, coupled with the current regulatory environment, we made the difficult decision to discontinue our Transgender Youth Health Program,” an NYU Langone spokesman told The New York Post in a statement Wednesday. 

“We are committed to helping patients in our care manage this change. This does not impact our pediatric mental health care programs, which will continue.”

NYU Langone changed its website page from “Transgender Youth Health Program” to “Gender & Sexuality Service,” The Post reports.

Earlier this month, Baystate Health sent a letter to parents and guardians to inform them of the shift in “gender-affirming care,” National Review reports. Instead, the Massachusetts hospital will transfer patients younger than 18 to Transhealth, a nearby center, to continue their prescriptions.

“This decision offers patients the specialized expertise and continuity of care they need and deserve and reflects the evolving regulatory landscape that threatens hundreds of millions of dollars in hospital Medicaid and Medicare funding,” Baystate Health said in a statement to the Boston Globe. “Nearly 70% of Baystate Health patients rely on Medicaid and Medicare, and preserving access to care for these individuals and all others in our community is a responsibility we take seriously.”

The Trump administration’s threat to pull federal funding follows President Donald Trump’s executive order on Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation in January of last year.

“Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called “transition” of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures,” Trump said in the order.

The order requires the heads of every executive department or agency to ensure any institution “receiving Federal research or education grants end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”

Last week, a plastic surgeon, who trained at NYU Langone Health, apologized for failing to object to such procedures, according to Fox News.

“As a father to three young children and as a physician who took an oath to do no harm, I failed to speak up, and I just want to thank President Trump for having more clarity on this,” he said.

In step with the Trump administration’s stance, last June the U.S. Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on transgender care for minors. Nationally, 27 states have banned the prescription of hormones and puberty blockers for minors, according to PBS News.

Recently, two major medical groups – The American Medical Association and the American Society of Plastic Surgeons – have said “gender-affirming surgeries” should be delayed until adulthood.

“Suddenly the cost of playing make-believe became real,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said. “It appears the prospect of accountability, not compassion, finally prompted the AMA’s change of heart.”