Advocate Health is scaling back transgender-related services for minors amid growing pressure from the Trump administration, the Chicago Tribune reported Wednesday.
Advocate Health has begun notifying patients that it will no longer prescribe drugs for gender transitions to anyone under the age of 19, according to the Chicago Tribune. The healthcare system — which operates 69 hospitals in six states, including 11 in Illinois — joins a wave of health networks and hospitals across the country scaling back such services amid the federal crackdown.
“We recognize that this is a deeply complex issue, and this decision was made after a multi-disciplinary team spent numerous hours carefully considering the options and outcomes,” Advocate said, according to the Chicago Tribune. “This new policy allows our hospitals, clinics and pharmacies to continue caring for all patients’ health needs in the changing federal environment.”
Advocate Health did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
President Donald Trump in January signed an executive order cutting off all federal funding for the chemical and surgical mutilation of children and threatened legal consequences for institutions that support the practices. Moreover, Attorney General Pam Bondi directed federal attorneys in April to investigate and prosecute doctors who perform or attempt to perform sex change surgeries on minors.
“Parents have been betrayed by politically captured profiteers at every step,” Bondi’s memo read. “These ‘professionals’ have deployed junk science and false claims about the effects of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ to justify the barbaric practice of surgically and chemically maiming and sterilizing children.”
Since the Trump administration’s crackdown began, a growing number of major hospitals have announced that they will no longer provide transgender-related treatments to minors, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries. Children’s National Hospital in Washington, D.C., the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and the Center for Transyouth Health and Development at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles are among the major hospitals backing away from such services.
The Justice Department has issued more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics tied to pediatric transgender medicine. The University of Michigan announced Monday it is halting transgender hormone therapy and puberty blockers for minors after receiving a federal subpoena.
The Department of Health and Human Services published a review in May declaring that child sex changes lack a scientific and ethical basis and “carry risk of significant harms including infertility/sterility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density accrual, adverse cognitive impacts, cardiovascular disease and metabolic disorders, psychiatric disorders, surgical complications, and regret.”
Despite the risks, Illinois and 15 other Democrat-run states have sued the administration, arguing the federal government is intimidating providers into dropping care and labeling transgender services as “medically necessary.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
