A major Manhattan hospital, faced with threats of losing federal funding, has closed its prominent medical program for treating transgender youth.
The move by the hospital, NYU Langone Health, comes after the Trump administration in December proposed rules that would pull federal dollars from any hospital that provides gender transition treatments for adolescents, such as puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery.
On Tuesday night, a spokesman for NYU Langone issued a statement citing “the current regulatory environment” as among the reasons the hospital had decided to discontinue its program for gender-related care for youth.
“Given the recent departure of our medical director, coupled with the current regulatory environment, we made the difficult decision to discontinue our Transgender Youth Health Program,” according to the statement, which was provided by an NYU Langone spokesman, Steve Ritea.
In an interview, the Manhattan borough president, Brad Hoylman-Sigal, said that it was his understanding that NYU Langone would no longer provide hormone treatments and other gender-related care to transgender youth.
Mr. Hoylman-Sigal said he worried that some of NYU Langone’s transgender patients would struggle to find doctors willing to continue their care.
“I’m horrified at the consequences that might result for some of these young people,” he said. “It’s crucial that they find alternative care as soon as possible, and I think it’s the responsibility of the hospitals that are ending this treatment to make those arrangements.”
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In its statement, NYU Langone said that it was “committed to helping patients in our care manage this change.” It noted that there would be no effect on the hospital’s “pediatric mental health care programs, which will continue.”
The announcement did not come out of the blue. Many families with transgender children who had been receiving gender treatments at major health systems have been trying to come up with backup plans. Some have sought to continue their care with doctors outside major hospital systems or at a clinic in Brooklyn where a doctor last year said that he was willing to risk jail to continue providing care to transgender youth.
A year ago, following an executive order by President Trump that took aim at gender-related treatment for minors, NYU Langone stopped accepting new patients into its transgender youth medicine program. It also canceled appointments for new patients who were scheduled to receive implants that release puberty-blocking medication. But patients who were already on puberty blockers or hormone therapy were able to continue with their treatments, according to interviews with parents of transgender youth.
During the past year, Mr. Trump has deployed the power of the federal government to try to put an end to gender-related care for minors across the United States. The Justice Department has sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics that perform transgender medical procedures on minors, demanding confidential patient information.
The F.B.I. has asked the public to call its tip line with information about doctors “who mutilate” children “under the guise of gender-affirming care.” And the Federal Trade Commission is examining whether “practitioners of ‘gender-affirming care’ may be actively deceiving consumers.”
A number of clinics and hospitals across the country have responded by scaling back gender-related treatments.
NYU Langone isn’t the only major Manhattan hospital with gender medicine programs for transgender youth. NYU Langone and another Manhattan health system, Mount Sinai, received subpoenas last year from federal agencies as part of inquiries into pediatric transgender medicine. Mount Sinai Health System did not respond to a request for comment regarding the status of its program.
Joseph Goldstein covers health care in New York for The Times, following years of criminal justice and police reporting.
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