More children’s hospitals in the United States are announcing an end to the practice of encouraging children to believe they can change their gender and exposing them to experimental drugs and surgeries.
Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC), and Yale New Haven Health have all released statements within the past week announcing a halt to their so-called “gender-affirming” services to minors in the wake of President Donald Trump’s executive order that protects children from “chemical and surgical mutilation.”
The order threatens to block federal funding to hospitals that subject children to the often irreversible consequences of the drugs and surgeries – and it appears the hospitals discontinuing these procedures are doing so to avoid a loss of federal funding.
“[I]n light of escalating legal and regulatory risks to Children’s National, our providers, and the families we serve, we will be discontinuing the prescription of gender-affirming medications,” the DC-based facility announced in a statement on the hospital’s website, adding that the change “will go into effect on August 30, 2025.”
“Mental health and other support services for LGBT patients remain available,” the hospital’s message also read. “You are always welcome at Children’s National for your other medical needs.”
“At President Trump’s direction, @TheJusticeDept will continue enforcing the law against institutions like Children’s National that mutilate children under the guise of medical care,” U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote Monday in a social media post in which she referred to President Donald Trump as “a champion on this crucial issue.”
Following the release of Trump’s executive order in January, the Children’s National said in a statement it was “committed to providing compassionate and comprehensive care in accordance with the law.”
“As a result, we are currently pausing all puberty blockers and hormone therapy prescriptions for transgender youth patients, per the guidelines in the Executive Order issued by the White House this week,” the statement continued. “Children’s National already does not perform gender affirming surgery for minors.”
In March, however, a federal judge blocked the president’s executive order, leading Children’s National to resume prescribing the controversial drugs to existing patients.
In the northeast, both CCMC and Yale New Haven Health announced they are “winding down” so-called “gender transition” interventions for children under the age of 19.
“The dominoes keep toppling in blue states,” independent journalist Ben Ryan commented on X this week.
“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,” CCMC President and CEO James Shmerling said Wednesday in a statement, according to CT Mirror. “After 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.”
“We remain fully committed to providing inclusive, respectful care to all children and to ensuring that every family continues to feel safe, supported, and heard at Connecticut Children’s,” Schmerling added.
In a state led by Democrats that have fought Trump’s agenda at every turn, Connecticut State Sen. Matthew Lesser expressed his “serious concerns” to Shmerling over the hospital’s halt to the gender treatments for children.
Lesser delivered a forceful message to the hospital CEO, asserting in a letter that by “winding down” so-called “gender transition” procedures, he was in violation of a recent Connecticut law that “makes it expressly illegal for ‘any health care provider to knowingly discriminate in the provision of health care services on account of a person’s … gender identity or expression.”
“I am concerned that your decision endangers your patients, violates established standards of care and, to the extent that your decision discriminates against a class of your patients, violates state law,” Lesser wrote, citing already debunked research which, he said, has “clearly established that transgender youth, who are stigmatized in every corner of our society, are at vastly higher risk of attempting and dying by suicide, and that gender affirming care can reduce that risk.”
An article published in June at The Atlantic, however, highlighted that a physician affiliated with Children’s Hospital Los Angeles admitted: ‘We often ask parents, Would you rather have a dead son than a live daughter?’”
During oral arguments at the Supreme Court in the recently decided Skrmetti case, nevertheless, “Justice Samuel Alito challenged the ACLU lawyer Chase Strangio on such claims,” author Helen Lewis wrote.
“Strangio made a startling admission,” she highlighted. “He conceded that there is no evidence to support the idea that medical transition reduces adolescent suicide rates.”
According to NBC Connecticut, state Attorney General William Tong said the halt to the gender treatments “is about scaring patients from seeking care and scaring doctors from providing care, regardless of who is harmed and the lives that will be lost.”
“Tong’s office said they are evaluating all legal options to protect Connecticut families and healthcare providers,” the report noted.
But, on Thursday, Family Institute of Connecticut (FIC) called the announcement by CCMC “a huge win against the mutilation of children in Connecticut.”
FIC’s Leslie Wolfgang said she backs Trump’s decision to protect children.
“I’m glad that he made the bold move to encourage hospitals to reconsider their policies and to stop funding for those procedures and for hospitals if they provided that type of treatment,” she said.
State Republican Party Chairman Ben Proto also observed to NBC Connecticut the inability of young children to provide informed consent to the “gender transition” interventions.
“Life-altering, irreversible medical interventions of this nature should be made by individuals who have reached an age and level of development where they can make informed, thoughtful decisions for themselves,” he said.
Yale New Haven Health also announced Thursday it would no longer offer experimental drugs purported to enable “gender transition” for patients under the age of 19.
In a statement to CT Mirror, a health system spokesperson said the decision was made after “carefully monitoring federal executive orders and administrative actions” concerning gender-affirming care for children.
The post Washington, DC, and Connecticut hospitals halt child ‘gender transition’ services following Trump executive order appeared first on CatholicVote org.
Click this link for the original source of this article.
Author: Susan Berry, Ph.D.
This content is courtesy of, and owned and copyrighted by, https://catholicvote.org and its author. This content is made available by use of the public RSS feed offered by the host site and is used for educational purposes only. If you are the author or represent the host site and would like this content removed now and in the future, please contact USSANews.com using the email address in the Contact page found in the website menu.
