Hospitals Across the Country Pump the Brakes on Child Sex Changes After Trump Executive Order

It’s a sign of the times. Earlier this week, President Trump signed an executive order halting taxpayer funding to healthcare facilities that perform sex change procedures on minors.

In response, several hospitals in various states have affirmed that they will no longer provide child sex change interventions to minors in order to continue receiving federal funding. 

Denver Health in Colorado confirmed to the Associated Press that, to comply with the executive order, it would no longer perform sex change surgeries on minors.

VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond are no longer providing surgical procedures as well as gender transition drugs to minors.

Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C. has paused prescribing puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to minors to comply with the order.

Not all hospitals have adopted this approach, however. Oregon Health & Science University, one of the country’s leading providers of so-called “gender-affirming care,” says it will not change its policies.

President Trump’s executive order directs federal agencies to “immediately take appropriate steps” to prevent institutions receiving federal research or education grants from performing child sex change interventions.

Crucially, the order also targets federal health benefit programs, directing the Secretary of Defense to exclude child sex change procedures from coverage through TRICARE and directing the Office of Personnel Management to exclude coverage for child sex change procedures, including transgender surgeries and cross-sex hormones, from certain federal health benefit programs.

With any luck, this cascade of hospitals ending these harmful practices is just the beginning.