At least six major U.S. hospitals have signed deals with the Department of Justice agreeing to stop providing gender-affirming hormones and surgery to transgender minors, and to make payments to the federal government, as the Associated Press’s Geoff Mulvihill reports.
The settlements involved NYU Langone Hospitals, which agreed to pay $8.5 million, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Centers, which agreed to pay $950,000. Both will no longer offer puberty blockers, hormones or surgery to patients under 19. Similar deals since May involved Cleveland Clinic, Connecticut Children’s Hospital, Mount Sinai Health System and Texas Children’s Hospital. None admitted wrongdoing.
“The Department of Justice is fighting to protect our nation’s children and working tirelessly to reach agreements with hospitals to end so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ for minors,” U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement.
For most of the hospitals, the deals formalize changes they had already made, either because of state bans or after President Trump’s January 2025 executive order. Mount Sinai is the only one that hadn’t announced its decision beforehand.
A major incentive for settling is that the agreements end federal subpoenas seeking patient records, including names. NYU Langone said settling removes “the threat that NYU Langone would have to provide the confidential information previously demanded about patients under 18 who received gender-affirming care at our institution.” Most hospitals had won subpoena fights in district courts, but a 2-1 ruling last month from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave the government’s case a boost.
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The medical debate continues. A Trump administration review published last year recommended therapy alone for youth, while the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics support keeping treatment available. At least 27 states restrict the care.
“It’s a really dangerous precedent when the federal government is allowed to politicize any one group of people’s care and end it,” said Eliel Cruz, a cofounder of the Gender Liberation Movement.
