California's largest pediatric health care system will stop providing gender-affirming health care to transgender youth next month amid growing pressure from the federal government.
Rady Children's Health, which encompasses Children's Hospital of Orange County, Rady Children's Hospital San Diego and Rady Children's in Riverside County, said the organization was recently referred for investigation to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.
The federal agency, which oversees the Medicare and Medicaid programs, did not comment on the timeline of its investigation or the focus of the investigation on Friday, saying that the HHS-OIG's “general policy is neither to confirm nor deny the existence of an investigation.”
But patients at Rady Children's and CHOC have been told they will no longer receive gender-affirming care at the facilities, which may include prescriptions for medications such as puberty blockers, starting Feb. 6, according to advocates. As a result, patients who are not taking medications such as puberty blockers will not be able to see a doctor and be guided through the process of stopping the medication by a specialized medical professional.
“The environment around gender-affirming care has changed dramatically, with an escalation of federal actions,” Rady Children's Health said in a statement. “These developments impact our role and responsibilities as a provider participating in federal programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, which are essential to caring for all children and families in our communities.”
In December, HHS announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services was proposing new rules that would prohibit gender-affirming care by medical providers participating in its programs.
“Nearly all U.S. hospitals participate in Medicare and Medicaid and this action is designed to ensure that the U.S. government does not do business with organizations that, intentionally or unintentionally, inflict permanent harm on children,” the department said at the time.
The department said officials would also propose additional rules to prohibit Medicaid and other funds from being used for gender-affirming care for children or adults under age 19.
Rady Children's Health said the decision to stop providing such interventions, procedures and prescriptions to patients was “very difficult” and “was made to ensure that we can continue to serve all children and families in the communities we serve.”
LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations say the move is another example of the Trump administration's continued efforts to mischaracterize legitimate care supported by major U.S. medical associations and erode access to services based in part on the false premise that transgender people do not exist.
Many hospitals across the country, including California, have already withdrawn gender-affirming care or closed entire programs amid growing pressure from the federal government.
In July, Children's Hospital Los Angeles officially closed what had been among the largest and oldest pediatric gender clinics in the United States. For years, the clinic had provided puberty blockers, hormones and other procedures for publicly insured trans youth.
This has forced transgender children and their families to move (sometimes to other states and out of the country) to seek medical care, said Brit Cervantes, founder of OCGAPNet, an organization that advocates for trans rights.
“A message is being sent that is very clear: transgender people, and particularly transgender youth, do not have the right to exist and do not have the right to have access to health care,” Cervantes said. “All this rhetoric that accompanies these hostile policies is really harmful.”
OCGAPNet and Pride at the Pier, another Orange County-based organization, are holding a rally outside Orange County Children's Hospital in Orange at noon Saturday to call for hospital leaders to resist federal pressure. TransFamily Support Services and the Alliance for TransYouth Rights will also hold a protest at 11 a.m. Saturday in front of Rady Children's Hospital in San Diego.
“This is not going to end transgender kids,” said Kanan Durham, director of Pride at the Pier. “The administration is testing how easily they can force a hospital to betray its patients. They are using their money as a weapon to tell us who can get care and who can't.”
