Another Children’s Hospital Puts an End to Gender Affirming Care

Last month the LA Children’s hospital announced that it would be shutting down the largest gender-affirming care clinic in the United States, the Center for Transyouth Health and Development. As I pointed out here, that center was facing a lot of pressure on both financial and legal fronts. Specifically, the center’s medical director, probably the most vocal advocated for gender affirming care in the US, has been sued by one of her former patients. The same director was also embarrassed by a NY Times story which revealed she’d been sitting on the results of a publicly funded study because the outcome didn’t suit her.

Friday, on the other side of the country, another children’s hospital announced it was also putting an end to gender affirming care.

Children’s National Hospital announced Friday that because of “escalating legal and regulatory risks,” the D.C.-based medical system will no longer provide gender-transition care for patients, leaving families reeling.

Effective Aug. 30, the hospital’s providers will discontinue the “prescription of gender-affirming medications,” according to a statement on the hospital’s website. Mental health and other support services will still be available, the statement says.

“We recognize the impact this has had on you and your family, and we are here to support you. Our care teams are available to assist you as you move forward,” reads a message the hospital sent to families that was obtained by The Washington Post. The note also says the hospital will no longer evaluate patients for medication or monitor medications through labs such as bloodwork.

The move comes after the Justice Department on July 9 said it had subpoenaed nearly 20 doctors and clinics that provide gender-transition care.

For the moment, no one is saying whether or not Children’s National Hospital or anyone working there received a subpoena from the Trump administration but that may be what prompted this. The hospital did prescribe puberty blockers to teens but says it only did so with parental consent.

Children’s National asserts on its gender development program’s web page that “some young people feel, sense or know they are a gender different than the one they were assumed at birth.”

“They may live and dress in ways typical of another gender (gender non-conformity), and some may experience the need to live and be affirmed as this gender in some or all settings,” the hospital says. “This can be an urgent need, or for others, there may be experimentation and exploration. There are also some young people who show gender non-conformity in their everyday behaviors, but may not yet have the self-advocacy skills to discuss their gender identity and their gender-related needs.”

The hospital website says parental consent is required to provide “gender-affirming medical care” to a minor in the District of Columbia. The hospital also says it does not provide “gender-affirming surgery” for anyone under the age of 18 and does not provide hormone therapy to children before puberty begins.

Parental consent in this case could mean, as it apparently did in Los Angeles, that a doctor tells the parents their child would be happier as a member of the opposite sex and might kill themselves if they are told no. That’s not much of a choice for parents. It’s manipulation by the same people who make a living off providing these services. 

And in some cases, things can get even worse. Last year a family sued Children’s National Hospital for taking their child away from them after they refused to go along with his gender transition.

The family said their boy had never shown any desire to become a girl until, at 16, he was hospitalized for self-harming after a bitter breakup with his girlfriend in 2021.

Staff at Children’s National Hospital informed the family that he wanted to be female and should be referred to using she/her pronouns going forward, the suit claims.

According to the lawsuit, the hospital used its emergency policies to keep the boy in its units and reported the parents to child protection services.

The boy was then moved into foster care and hasn’t been back to the family home since. What followed has been a two-year legal battle for custody over the teen, who is now 19 and remains in foster care.

The parents, who are in their 40s and African-American, say their son was at risk because his condition means he is vulnerable to social manipulation. 

That’s how parental approval works. You approve of the gender affirming care or else.