Denver Health and VCU Health and Children’s Hospital are among the hospitals halting transgender surgeries for minors.
Hospitals in Colorado, Virginia, and the nation’s capital said on Jan. 30 they have stopped transgender procedures for minors as they evaluate President Donald Trump’s new executive order.
Denver Health in Colorado has stopped providing transgender surgeries such as breast removal for people under the age of 19, a spokesperson said, in order to comply with the executive order and continue receiving federal funding. It’s not clear whether the hospital will continue providing other transgender procedures and medicine for youth, such as puberty blockers.
In Virginia, VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond said it has suspended transgender medication and surgical procedures for those under 19 years old.
Children’s National Hospital in Washington said the hospital had “paused prescriptions of puberty blockers and hormone therapy to comply with the directives while we assess the situation further.” The hospital already did not perform transgender surgeries on minors, according to a spokesperson.
Trump on Tuesday signed an order titled “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”
The order says it is now U.S. policy not to fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support “the so-called ’transition’ of a child from one sex to another.” It says the U.S. government “will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
The order directs the heads of agencies that provide grants to medical institutions to “immediately take appropriate steps to ensure that institutions receiving Federal research or education grants end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”
Other hospitals, including Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, said after the order was signed that its current practices would continue.
“Our team will continue to advocate for access to medically necessary care, grounded in science and compassion for the patient-families we are so privileged to serve,” the hospital said.
The order targets World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) guidance, which describes procedures such as hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and surgeries such as breast removal for children as “gender-affirming care” that “can be effective and helpful for many transgender adolescents.” The order says agencies shall rescind or amend all policies that rely on the association’s guidance.
WPATH said in a statement that restrictions and bans on “access to necessary medical care for transgender youth are harmful to patients and their families.”
The order also directed the U.S. health secretary to take steps to end child sex surgeries, including through Medicare, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to exclude child sex surgeries from the military-run TRICARE health insurance program.
