NASHVILLE (BP) – The landscape of so-called “gender affirming care” continues to change as hospitals change policies and treatment plans under pressure from the Trump administration.
Dozens of U.S. hospitals have stopped transgender treatment for minors since President Donald Trump signed an executive order early last year aiming to restrict such treatments to people over age 19. The order called for, among other things, removing Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals providing such care to minors.
HHS has made ending such treatments a priority, and many hospitals have complied.
“Those hospital systems are to be commended for making the right decision after making irreversible terrible decisions that harmed and permanently damaged children,” HHS general counsel Mike Stuart said in an X post Feb. 3. “Sadly, other hospitals and hospital systems are continuing to perform heinous and horrific acts of intentional permanent harm to minors including, allegedly, Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System. We will not stop until every single child is protected from the destruction of the integrity of God’s chosen human body.”
A report from medical news site STAT said more than 40 hospitals have stopped such treatments in the last year. One of those – Rady Children’s Health in San Diego – was ordered by a judge Feb. 21 to continue providing them.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Matthew Braner claims that Rady Children’s Health is violating California law by discontinuing gender treatments.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed suit against Rady Jan. 30.
“Rady Children’s Health has chosen to violate its merger agreement and California law in response to the Trump Administration’s illegal campaign against providers of gender-affirming care,” Bonta said.
Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission Chief of Staff Miles Mullin reasserted Southern Baptists’ views on gender transition for anyone.
“Every human life carries God‑given worth and dignity, bestowed by a Creator who makes no mistakes,” Mullin said. “Flowing from that conviction, Southern Baptists have consistently opposed so‑called ‘gender transition’ procedures which inflict real harm and leave lasting wounds on those who undergo them.”
Meanwhile, Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville announced it will discontinue gender reassignment surgery for adults.
Vanderbilt has not performed gender surgeries on minors for several years, and Tennessee law (upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year) now forbids them.
The hospital said Feb. 21 it would stop the surgeries for everyone.
“Due to operational limitations and lack of surgical coverage, Vanderbilt Health will cease providing gender-affirming plastic surgeries for adults,” a statement said. “Vanderbilt Health continues to provide nonsurgical gender-affirming care for adults 19 years and older.”
A law making its way through the Tennessee legislature would discontinue state funding for transgender treatments.
“It is right for the very places designated for the care of patients, hospitals, to end practices that irreparably injure real people,” Mullin said. “And it is wrong for governments to compel them to continue such practices. That is the antithesis of what the government should do. As we continue to stand for the truth, we also pray that those suffering under the burden of gender confusion will find rest and wholeness in Jesus Christ.”
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