Hospitals that don’t provide gender affirming care because of a White House executive order to end the practice could violate state law, New York Attorney General Letitia James warned, putting health institutions in the middle of a growing conflict between President Donald Trump’s administration and state authorities.
The letter issued Monday from the state’s top lawyer comes after NYU Langone Health reportedly canceled appointments for gender affirming care to two minors over the weekend and New York’s largest hospital, New York-Presbyterian, removed language about the medical procedures from its website as reported by The City.
Last week, President Donald Trump issued an executive order stating that hospitals could lose federal funding if they continue to administer treatment for trans individuals and others under the age of 19. That line of treatment includes puberty blockers and hormone treatments.
But James wrote that withholding health services qualifies as discrimination.
“Electing to refuse services to a class of individuals based on their protected status, such as withholding the availability of services from transgender individuals based on their gender identity or their diagnosis of gender dysphoria, while offering such services to cisgender individuals, is discrimination under New York law,” James wrote in the letter.
Trump’s order described gender affirming care as “chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”
“It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another,” the order reads.
