Connecticut hospital to end pediatric ‘gender-affirming’ care

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(The Center Square) — A Connecticut children's hospital has agreed to stop offering pediatric "gender affirming care" after reaching a settlement with the Department of Justice following an investigation. 

Under the settlement, announced on Wednesday, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center has agreed not to perform "sex-rejecting procedures"  on minors — including by administering puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to and performing surgeries on children and adolescents, the DOJ said in a statement. 

The hospital has also agreed to pay a fine and divert $500,000 to medical care for individuals "living with the harmful consequences of gender affirming care," according to the federal agency. 

The DOJ said the agreement is the latest in its ongoing national probe into violations of federal law in connection with "sex-rejecting procedures" on minors, "otherwise known as gender-affirming care."

"This resolution is a reminder to hospitals, medical providers, and pharmaceutical companies that the Justice Department will vigorously enforce federal law, especially where the lives of children are endangered," Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said in a statement.

DOJ officials said the hospital took "significant steps" to cooperate with its investigation. 

"At all times during the investigation, Connecticut Children’s remained cooperative, proactive, and solution-driven, as highlighted by its financial commitment to providing restorative care to the victims who desperately need it," the agency said. 

“As with Texas Children’s and Cleveland Clinic before it, I am encouraged when leading institutions like Connecticut Children’s agree to be part of the solution and no longer the problem," Brett Shumate, Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ's Civil Division, said in a statement. "But while we can be grateful when we arrive at such positive resolutions, we cannot and will not rest in our pursuit of justice for the victims of these discredited practices." 

The DOJ is also fighting several legal battles over the Trump administration’s efforts to restrict pediatric gender-affirming care. While some major children's hospitals have curtailed youth programs amid federal pressure, in some cases state and federal judges have stepped in to block specific administration enforcement actions.

In March, New York Attorney General Letitia James ordered the NYU Langone Health to resume gender affirming care for teens after the hospital shut down the program amid threats of funding cuts from the Trump administration. James claimed that NYU Langone’s decision ran afoul of New York’s anti-discrimination law. 

In December, the Trump administration rolled out new rules that would prohibit Medicare or Medicaid funding from flowing to hospitals that provide such gender-affirming care to patients under 18, a move that effectively bans gender-affirming care for transgender young people, even in states like Connecticut, where it is still legal. The new rules are being challenged in court. 

"So-called gender affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people," Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in remarks at the time. "This is not medicine. It is malpractice."