California’s Largest Pediatric Healthcare System to Halt Gender-Affirming Care for Transgender Youth
The largest pediatric healthcare system in California, Rady Children’s Health, has announced that it will stop providing gender-affirming medical care to transgender youth starting February 6. This decision comes amid increasing pressure from the federal government, which has been escalating its actions against such care. Rady Children’s Health encompasses Children’s Hospital of Orange County, Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego, and Rady Children’s in Riverside County.
Investigation and Federal Pressure
The organization was recently referred for investigation to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, which oversees the Medicare and Medicaid programs. Although the federal agency did not comment on the timeline or focus of the probe, patients at Rady Children’s and CHOC have been informed that they will no longer receive gender-affirming care, including prescriptions for medications like puberty blockers. This change will leave patients without access to specialized medical professionals to guide them through the process of stopping these medications.
Changing Environment and Federal Actions
Rady Children’s Health stated that the environment around gender-affirming care has changed dramatically, with escalating federal actions affecting their role and responsibilities as a provider participating in federal programs like Medicaid and Medicare. In December, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced proposed new rules that would ban gender-affirming care by medical providers participating in its programs, citing concerns about “permanent harm” to children. The department also plans to propose additional rules to prohibit Medicaid and other funding from being used for gender-affirming care for children or adults under 19.
Impact on Transgender Youth and Families
LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations argue that this move is part of continuous efforts to mischaracterize legitimate care backed by major U.S. medical associations and erode access to services based on the false premise that transgender people do not exist. Many hospitals across the country, including in California, have already pulled back on gender-affirming care or shuttered entire programs amid mounting pressure from the federal government. This has forced transgender children and their families to relocate, sometimes to other states or out of the country, to seek medical care.
Advocacy and Protests
Organizations like OCGAPNet and Pride at the Pier are holding rallies and protests to call for hospital leadership to resist federal pressure. Brit Cervantes, founder of OCGAPNet, emphasized that the message being sent is clear: “transgender people, and particularly transgender youth, don’t have a right to exist, and we don’t have a right to have access to healthcare.” Kanan Durham, director of Pride at the Pier, warned that this will not end with transgender kids, as the administration is testing how easily they can force a hospital to betray its patients.
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