The Destruction of Gender-Affirming Healthcare for NYC Trans Youth

March 5, 2025

Trump’s January 28, 2025, Executive Order attacking gender-affirming healthcare for youth – the title of which is too awful to repeat here – is already causing unthinkable harm across the U.S.

Among other horrors, the EO threatens the loss of significant federal research funding for hospitals and medical schools, should those institutions provide gender-affirming care. The response of hospitals in NYC has been framed as an example of just how bad the situation is going to get.

In early February, NYU Langone Health, a leading NYC hospital system, began canceling appointments for trans youth. So did Mount Sinai. Anya Kamenetz shares a few stories from affected families: Paul’s 16-year-old trans daughter is at risk of losing her medication; she personally knows “trans people who have been driven to suicide and struggle with suicidality daily.” A mother in the Bronx’s 12-year-old trans son was informed that he “will not be able to get a puberty-blocker device implanted in his arm this spring as planned”; without the device, he would need to take shots, and he’s afraid of needles. Then there’s Jamie, a trans 18-year-old, who shared with The Nation that they were denied care “after going through the entire process of starting testosterone this week, and sent links to suicide hotlines instead of the prescription they said [they] would have this week.” A few days later, New York Attorney General Letitia James told hospitals that they would be violating state anti-discrimination law if they stop offering gender-affirming care. It’s unclear whether hospitals have reversed course.

Some have framed NYC hospitals’ response as cowardice in the face of the EO, while others understand the decision as a reasonable response to the fear of losing federal funding. In any event, it’s clear the EO has caused panic, confusion, and harm.

We at the Woodhull Freedom Foundation vehemently oppose this EO, which denies essential healthcare to young people. Rights to healthcare and bodily autonomy are the crux of our fundamental human right to sexual freedom.