Lurie Children’s Hospital has paused gender-affirming surgeries for patients younger than 19, following an executive order from President Donald Trump in January.
“As part of our comprehensive review of the Executive Order, we have made the difficult decision to pause gender care surgeries within the gender care program for all patients under the age of 19 as we work to understand the rapidly evolving environment,” Lurie said in a statement.
A Lurie spokesperson said the hospital is continuing to provide other care for patients in its gender care program, and is working to see if patients scheduled for surgery might be able to undergo the surgeries elsewhere.
The action at Lurie, first reported by WBEZ on Friday, comes more than a week after Trump issued an executive order taking aim at gender-affirming care — including medications to delay puberty, hormone therapy and surgery — for people under the age of 19.
The order instructed federal agencies to ensure that institutions, such as hospitals, that receive federal research grants stop offering gender-affirming care to people under 19. That order also instructed the secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to take action, potentially related to Medicaid and other programs, to end gender-affirming care for people younger than 19.
The executive order says: “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. This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”
It’s an order that has caused confusion among hospitals across the country, with some hospitals, like Lurie, halting gender-affirming surgeries for minors, even as state officials challenge the order.
An unnamed Illinois mother said in a court filing last week that her son’s surgery at UI Health was canceled in January, she was told by a surgeon, “because the hospital was worried about losing millions of dollars in funding.”
UI Health would not comment on the specific court document, saying in a statement last week that: “UI Health is committed to providing inclusive care to our community. We continue to provide gender-affirming care to our patients in accordance with the law.”
The cancellations seem to be occurring despite Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul joining with the attorneys general of 14 other states last week to pledge that they will protect gender-affirming care. They said in a statement that federal dollars remain available to institutions that provide gender-affirming care despite the executive order, and that Illinois and the other states will take legal action if that funding is halted.
Raoul also said in the statement that Illinois law requires health care providers to provide care to all residents and prohibits unlawful discrimination on the basis of gender identity.
On Friday, the states of Oregon, Washington and Minnesota, along with three physicians, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington seeking to stop the executive order. The lawsuit alleges that the order usurps Congress’ spending and legislative powers, among other allegations.
“The Order is a cruel and baseless broadside against transgender youth, their families, and the doctors and medical institutions that provide them this critical care,” the lawsuit alleges. “It is an official statement of bigotry from the President that directs agencies to openly discriminate against vulnerable youth on the basis of their transgender status and sex. It is also a blatant abuse of power.”
A separate lawsuit has also been filed in federal court in Maryland by PFLAG, GLMA and transgender young adults and their families challenging the executive order.
