California AG Sues Children’s Hospital to Force Them to Resume Gender Affirming Care

Gov. Gavin Newsom may be running for president but California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta is not. And that means that Bonta can continue to take the most extreme positions on every issue and use his office to demand everyone else fall in line. Case in point, last week Bonta sued a California children’s hospital to force them to resume gender affirming care for minors.

The hospital first announced their plans to end gender affirming care a few weeks ago.

The largest pediatric healthcare system in California will stop providing gender-affirming medical care to transgender youth next month amid increasing pressure from the federal government.

Rady Children’s Health, encompassing 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 environment around gender-affirming care has changed dramatically, with escalating federal actions,” Rady Children’s Health said in a statement. “These developments affect 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.”

This only impacted children. The hospitals said they would continue to offer services to those 19 and over. But AG Bonta decided that wasn’t good enough and sued Rady Children’s Health in an effort to force them to resume providing trans treatment to kids.

Bonta is seeking a permanent injunction that would require Rady to restore “all gender-affirming care services to the same types and levels of care as were provided at the time of Rady’s merger in January 2025” at CHOC. The injunction would also apply to Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego, and its other hospitals and clinics across Southern California…

In a statement to LAist, Rady Children’s Health said it is “aware of the lawsuit filed by the California Attorney General and is reviewing the filing.” It did not clarify if it planned to go forward with previously announced restrictions…

The hospital system said that it will address Bonta’s concerns “through the legal process.” It did not respond when LAist asked directly if this meant it was undoing its previously announced restrictions.

This is really just an escalation of a tactic Bonta tried a year ago when the largest pediatric gender clinic in the US, based in Los Angeles, announced it was closing.

California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said Wednesday he was putting a Los Angeles hospital on notice that withholding hormonal therapy and other gender-affirming care from transgender youth could run afoul of state law.

The action came after Children’s Hospital Los Angeles said it was pausing the initiation of hormonal therapy for “gender-affirming care patients” under the age of 19 and had suspended gender-affirming surgeries for minors…

Bonta’s office sent a letter to the hospital Wednesday stating that if services are being offered to other people who are not transgender, withholding them from transgender people based on their gender identity is a prohibited form of discrimination…

Trump’s order had stirred up confusion, Bonta said in a statement. “Let me be clear: California law has not changed, and hospitals and clinics have a legal obligation to provide equal access to healthcare services.”

Bonta’s threat generated some headlines and, initially, it seemed to force the hospital to reverse course.

One of the largest providers of gender-affirming care to minors in California will start treating new patients again after a weeks-long pause spurred by President Donald Trump’s executive order restricting treatment for transgender youth…

On Friday, the hospital announced it would resume care again, saying Bonta’s office had promised to secure additional legal protections for patients and staff in light of Washington’s actions.

But success was short-lived. The gender center at LA Children’s hospital shut down completely a few months later. This time around, Bonta escalated to an actual lawsuit. We’ll have to wait and see if that matters. The three children’s hospitals run by Rady in southern California are set to cut off gender affirming care this Friday.

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