California warns hospitals not to withhold trans youth healthcare

As Donald Trump seeks to block transgender youth healthcare across the country, California’s attorney general has sent a clear message to providers, reminding them of their duty to provide gender-affirming treatment under the state’s nondiscrimination laws.

“The law requires [hospitals] to continue to provide gender-affirming care to our transgender community,” Rob Bonta, a Democrat who heads the California justice department, told the Guardian on Wednesday. “We will have the transgender community’s back. We will fight for their rights, for their protections, for their freedoms.”

His comments come a week after Trump issued an executive order decreeing that medical institutions that receive federal funding and grants do not provide gender-affirming care, including hormone therapy and puberty blockers, to youth under age 19.

In response, some hospitals have paused treatments, which are considered part of the standards of care for gender dysphoria endorsed by all major US medical associations. Trans patients, their families and civil rights groups have said the interruption of care could have dire consequences for patients’ physical and mental health. They’ve also argued that Trump’s order is unlawful, violating patients’ constitutional rights and parental rights, and that hospitals have no legal obligation to preemptively deny care, particularly while the policy is being challenged in court.

On Tuesday, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA), a major local provider, said it was pausing the initiation of hormone treatments for trans youth. The hospital told the LA Times it was not starting new patients’ gender-affirming care while it evaluated Trump’s order “to fully understand its implications”, but said treatment for existing patients would continue.

On Wednesday, Bonta wrote a letter to CHLA warning that “withholding services from transgender individuals based on their gender identity or their diagnosis of gender dysphoria” would violate the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, a longstanding law that prohibits discrimination against LGBTQ+ people.

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Source: The Guardian, 5 February 2025