Children’s Hospital LA Will Shut Down Center for ‘Transyouth Health’

In a total capitulation to the Trump Administration, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles announced last week that it is shutting down its notorious clinic that foisted sex change procedures on minors.

The announcement marks an abrupt shift for the Children’s Hospital, which had earlier seemed inclined to fight the Trump Administration in court over its threat to cut off funding to any hospital that provides so-called gender affirming care for youths.

The Hospital’s Center for Transyouth Health and Development offers surgery, puberty blockers and hormones to kids reportedly as young as 8 years old.  It is currently being sued by a young woman who was only 12 years old when the Center started to cajole her into transitioning to male with cross sex hormones, testosterone and, ultimately, a double mastectomy.

In an email to staff on June 12 announcing the decision to close the clinic on July 22, Hospital officials said there was “no viable alternative” that would allow them to keep offering the sex change procedures. “There is no doubt that this is a painful and significant change to our organization and a challenge to CHLA’s mission, vision, and values,” they wrote. “CHLA has a responsibility to navigate this complex and uncertain regulatory environment in a way that allows us to remain open as much as possible for as many as possible.”

“In the end, this painful and difficult decision was driven by the need to safeguard CHLA’s ability to operate amid significant external pressures beyond our control.”

In addition to facing a loss of federal funding if the Hospital continued with the procedures, the doctors who performed the trans surgeries were being threatened with prosecution, the email said.

“These threats are no longer theoretical,” the note said. “Taken together, the Attorney General memo, [Department of Health and Human Services] review, and the recent solicitation of tips from the FBI to report hospitals and providers of [gender affirming care]  strongly signal this Administration’s intent to take swift and decisive action, both criminal and civil, against any entity it views as being in violation of the executive order.”

On January 28, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that vowed to nix funding to hospitals that provide transition services to minors. It was titled, “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”

It said that, “Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding.  Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.”

Therefore, “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.”

In response to the executive order, the Hospital on February 4,  announced that it was pausing new hormonal treatments for anyone under 19.  The Hospital said in a statement that, “At this time, CHLA is pausing the initiation of hormonal therapies for all gender affirming care patients under the age of 19 and maintaining the existing pause on gender-affirming surgeries on minors. Current patients already receiving treatment will continue with their course of care. We continue to carefully evaluate the Executive Order to fully understand its implications. The physical and mental health, safety and well-being of all of our patients remains our highest priority. CHLA will continue to support our patients and their families with access to mental health and social support services, ensuring our patients continue to have access to high-quality care and the best possible health outcomes.”

The next day, California Attorney General Rob Bonta tacitly threatened to sue the Hospital if it discontinued the transition services, telling officials in a letter that they were obligated under California anti-discrimination laws to provide them.

Bonta wrote in his letter to the Hospital general counsel  Grace Ohthat, “As a reminder, California law, including the Unruh Civil Rights Act, Civil Code section 51, and Government Code section 11135, prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Electing to refuse services to a class of individuals based on their protected status, such as withholding services from transgender individuals based on their gender identity or their diagnosis of gender dysphoria, while offering such services to cisgender individuals, is discrimination. California families seeking gender affirming care, and the doctors  and staff who provide it, are protected under state laws. “

Yet in the same letter, Bonta suggested he would help the Hospital fight the Trump Administration in court if they lost funding for providing the procedures. He wrote that, “The Office of the Attorney General will continue to defend California law.”

The situation got even more confusing days later when two federal judges issued injunctions blocking the Trump Administration from enforcing the executive order.

The Hospital reversed course again on February 21 with an announcement that it would resume the hormonal treatments because of the judges’ order and Bonta’s promise to “seek additional protections for CHLA and its patients.”

So it sounded, back in February, like the Hospital, with Bonta’s backing, was gearing up for a court fight with the Trump Administration if they cut off funding.

The decision to just shutter the clinic seems surprising. Asked for their reaction, Bonta’s press office, in an email to the California Globe, both blasted the Trump Administration and suggested the AG would go after hospitals and doctors that refuse to provide sex change procedures to minors.

The email said, “This much is clear: The Trump administration’s relentless assault on transgender youth is nothing short of an all-out war to strip away LGBTQ+ rights. The Administration’s harmful attacks are hurting California’s youth by seeking to scare doctors and hospitals from providing nondiscriminatory health care. The bottom line is this: this care remains legal in California and nothing about what the President has said or done changes hospital and healthcare providers responsibilities to comply with state law. In California, we remain committed to safeguarding and upholding the health care rights and freedoms for all individuals, including our transgender youth.”

But Greg Burt with the California Family Council told the California Globe that while the closing of the clinic is a welcome development,  transgender orthodoxy is still embedded in Golden State law.

He emailed that,  “the decision by Children’s Hospital Los Angeles to close its gender clinic is a long-overdue and necessary step in protecting vulnerable children from irreversible harm. This closure, driven by the threat of federal prosecution under a reinvigorated Trump administration, should be welcomed by all who value the sanctity of the human body and the innocence of childhood.

“Let us be clear: this does not erase the profound damage already inflicted. For years, this clinic has performed medical experiments on children under the guise of ‘care,’ removing the healthy breasts of young girls confused about their identity and damaging boys’ bodies through powerful puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. These so-called treatments have led to sterilization, sexual dysfunction, and psychological trauma for countless minors.

“The fact that such atrocities were allowed in the first place is a tragic indictment of California’s ideological stranglehold on medical ethics and child welfare.

“We are grateful to President Trump and his administration for taking decisive action to hold medical institutions accountable for their participation in these mutilating practices. His leadership is restoring common sense and compassion to pediatric medicine.

“Yet the battle is far from over. California law still shackles licensed counselors who wish to provide real help to children struggling with gender confusion. SB 1172, passed in 2012, bans any effort by mental health professionals to guide a child toward accepting their God-given sex. This law forces counselors to affirm a child’s confusion rather than lovingly help them embrace the body they were born in.

“This legal straightjacket means thousands of hurting young people will now be left without real alternatives—affirmed in their confusion but denied true healing.

“The legislature must act. We call for the full repeal of SB 1172 and the restoration of the right for counselors to help children rediscover peace with their biological reality. Real compassion listens. Real science heals. And real love tells the truth.It’s time California stops bowing to gender ideology and starts protecting our kids.”