A number of hospitals and clinics across the country that provide transgender surgeries or medication for minors are giving a giant middle finger to President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at ‘protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation.’
Mass General Brigham and other Boston-area hospitals and clinics confirmed to Boston public radio that they plan to continue providing transgender medical treatments as normal. A spokesperson for Mass General Brigham said the hospital was ‘reviewing the federal actions to determine what impact they would have if implemented.’
Oregon Health & Science University, one of the state’s largest providers of transgender surgeries, has stood firm against Trump’s order and said that they expect no interruptions to their services, according to local outlet Oregon Live.
In Minnesota, multiple hospitals confirmed they will continue to offer transgender medical treatments, and no hospitals in the state have publicly announced any cuts, according to local news outlet The Bemidji Pioneer.
Defiance from these hospitals comes in the face of conflicting directives from state and national leaders who have either determined Trump’s executive order is unlawful, or called on hospitals to ignore the directive. New York Attorney General Letitia James warned New York hospitals that complying with Trump’s order would violate state discrimination laws.
Simultaneously, attorneys general from 15 states have argued that a court ruling determining Trump’s broad federal funding freeze was unlawful, ultimately rendering his threat to slash funding from hospitals illegal. ‘We will challenge any unlawful effort by the Trump Administration to restrict access to [transgender operations and treatment] in our jurisdictions,’ they said.
While some hospitals have chosen to do nothing in the face of these conflicting directives, others have taken limited steps to comply.
At Lurie Children’s Hospital, Chicago’s largest children’s hospital, puberty blockers, hormones and mental health services will continue for all current and new patients, but surgery will no longer be offered.
In East Hollywood, California, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles will stop accepting new patients seeking transgender medications but will continue providing these medications to existing patients who have already been receiving them. Gender-reassignment surgery was not something they offered at the time of Trump’s order.
At Wisconsin Children’s located in Milwaukee, the parent of a transgender patient told TMJ4 News that the hospital said it will not be accepting new patients seeking transgender medical care but there ‘should be no changes’ to the ‘healthcare’ that their child or other current patients receive. Fox News Digital reached out to Children’s Wisconsin for comment but did not receive a response.
A spokesperson for Denver Health told Fox News Digital that while it is terminating all transgender surgeries, patients who have been receiving hormone therapy can continue to do so ‘through the end of February.’
While hospitals are reacting differently over what to do next, the Trump administration is being taken to court by state attorneys general, transgender patients and their families, and even a clinic providing transgender treatment.
In a move that showed what Trump’s executive order could do when hospitals do not comply, the administration withdrew a $1.6 million grant that was supposed to go to St. John’s Community Health in Los Angeles to provide funds for its transgender treatment services. While two judges recently ruled that Trump’s federal funding freeze was unlawful, the decisions do not apply to Trump’s executive order on transgender medical services that is preventing St. John’s from accessing the money, according to Cal Matters.
St. John’s intends to sue, Cal Matters noted, and will not be cutting any of its services at this time. In a statement to Fox News Digital, a spokesperson for the clinic said Republicans ‘in particular,’ should be concerned about Trump’s ‘overreach’ and ‘attempts to create false narratives about gender-affirming care that go against decades of science.’
‘The attacks on trans health care are blatant attempts by the federal government to interfere in peoples’ private lives — including in doctor-patient relationships and in parent-child relationships — and should alarm all of us.’