Hospitals Across U.S. Stop Transitioning Children After Trump Signs Order Protecting Kids

Following President Donald Trump’s executive order protecting children from irreversible gender procedures, hospitals across the country have started canceling appointments or ceasing their transgender programs for children.

“It’s already having its intended effect — preventing children from being maimed and sterilized by adults perpetuating a radical, false claim that they can somehow change a child’s sex,” the White House said in a Monday release. “Hospitals around the country are taking action to downsize or eliminate their so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ programs.”

“President Trump will always protect American children,” the White House added. “Promises made, promises kept – again.”

In New York, NYU Langone Health began canceling transgender appointments for children, including two 12-year-olds who were supposed to start puberty blockers — medication that can have irreversible impacts on a child’s development.

In Colorado, a spokesperson for Denver Health told NBC that it had stopped performing transgender surgeries on children and young people under the age of 19.

In Virginia, both VCU Health and the Children’s Hospital of Richmond confirmed to NBC that they have halted their transgender medication and surgeries on children and people under 19. UVA Health in Charlottesville has suspended all so-called “gender-affirming care” while it reviews the guidance.

“Like many health systems across the country, the University of Virginia and UVA Health are working to analyze and interpret the federal order and related state guidance, as well as monitoring other potential policy changes and impacts to ensure we are always delivering care in accordance with the law,” the hospital wrote.

In the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C., Children’s National Hospital “paused prescriptions of puberty blockers and hormone therapy to comply with the directives while we assess the situation further,” according to NBC. The hospital has previously said it doesn’t perform transgender surgeries on children.

In Illinois, Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago said it is reviewing Trump’s order and “assessing any potential impact to the clinical services we offer to our patient families,” according to the local outlet Fox59. The hospital statement added: “Our team will continue to advocate for access to medically necessary care, grounded in science and compassion for the patient-families we are so privileged to serve.”

In Pennsylvania, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia also said it is “closely reviewing recent government actions, including the executive order on Jan. 28, to understand how they might impact care for the children who rely on [it].”

Trump signed an executive order during his second week in office protecting children from irreversible gender transition procedures, calling them a “stain on our Nation’s history.”

The order describes the transgender procedures that doctors and activists have pushed upon children in recent years, and states that the United States will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the attempted gender transition of a child, promising that it will “rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”

“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” the order states. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”

“Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding,” the order continues. “Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.”

On Friday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told The Daily Wire that Trump would “certainly” support congressional efforts to protect children from transgender procedures.

“The president has already taken a very strong stance on this issue this week with the signing of his executive order, a few executive orders in this space,” she told The Daily Wire during Friday’s press briefing.

“First, he made it the official policy of the federal government that there are only two sexes, male and female, and we have directed all federal agencies to comply with that policy,” Leavitt explained. “As for congressional legislation to support the president’s agenda in this space, and certainly ending the mutilation of young children, the chemical castration of young children, which is a barbaric practice that the vast majority of Americans do not support, for young, minor children, certainly, the president would support Congress’ efforts, as he has already made that very clear this week.”