Hospital hallway, emergency room. (Photo: VILevi, Shutterstock)
Two More Hospitals Close Youth Transgender Clinics in Settlement With Trump DOJ
No California hospitals have entered settlements with the DOJ to end transgender medical procedures for minors
By Katy Grimes, September 25, 2026 6:00 am
Late last week, the U.S. Department of Justice announced that New York University Langone Hospitals (NYU), and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), will end providing dangerous “gender affirming care,” medically known as transgender interventions for minors.
On Friday, the Department of Justice announced settlement agreements with NYU Langone Hospitals and UPMC. Under the deals, both hospital systems agreed to stop providing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and related surgical procedures to minor patients under 18.
So far, no California hospitals have entered settlements with the U.S. Department of Justice resolving investigations into the provision of transgender medical interventions involving puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or surgeries for minors. However, California medical facilities have faced related DOJ activity, mainly subpoenas for records as part of a broader national investigation, according to Reuters:
- Children’s Hospital Los Angeles received a subpoena and later reached an agreement (in a lawsuit brought by patients’ families) under which the DOJ withdrew demands for patient-identifying information and required redactions on other records. CHLA separately closed its youth gender program. This was not a resolution of an investigation into the interventions themselves.
- Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford also received a subpoena; a federal judge issued an injunction blocking production of patient records. No settlement with the hospital over the care was reported.
- Rady Children’s Health faced pressure and paused or ended some services; California’s attorney general sued the system to try to force continuation of care under a prior merger agreement, rather than any DOJ settlement.
The New York Times reports that the hospitals that reached agreements with the DOJ as of May and last week, are Texas Children’s Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center, Mount Sinai Health System, New York University Langone Hospital and the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
NYU agreed to pay $8.5 million and UPMC $950,000. Both hospitals denied wrongdoing or liability and said they settled to end the investigations, avoid prolonged litigation, and protect patient records.
NYU had already shut down its dedicated transgender interventions youth program in February 2026.
The DOJ described the settlements as part of a nationwide investigation into potential False Claims Act violations and other federal-law issues tied to billing for these interventions.
“The Department of Justice is fighting to protect our nation’s children and working tirelessly to reach agreements with hospitals to end so-called ‘gender affirming care’ for minors,” said Attorney General Todd Blanche. “Today’s resolutions send a clear message: hospitals that target children in these practices and then fraudulently obtain payment for the procedures will be held to account.”
“My office’s foremost priority is protecting children. The resolutions announced today reflect the close collaboration across the Department of Justice and our continued commitment to ensuring that minors are safeguarded,” said Ryan Raybould, US Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. “These investigations are ongoing, and my office will continue to follow the evidence, act decisively when the well-being of minors is at stake, and fully pursue wrongdoers who have broken federal law.”
Despite the other hospitals entering into settlements with the DOJ, the NY Times claims, “Most major medical associations in the United States endorse gender-transition medication for adolescents who experience a mismatch between their sex and their sense of their own gender, known as gender dysphoria.” Most major medical associations in the United States may receive legal notice from the DOJ, if this is correct.
The hospitals stated that mental-health services for minors and gender-related care for adults 18 and older would continue.
The DOJ said that in 2025, President Trump directed the Department of Justice to prioritize investigations and enforcement actions involving violations of federal law in the provision of so-called “gender-affirming care” to children.
Acting on that directive, the Civil Division launched a nationwide investigation into the child gender-transition industry. The investigation examines potential violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the False Claims Act, and other federal health care laws, including fraudulent billing practices such as the use of false diagnosis codes to obtain payment from federal health care programs and private insurers. These schemes compound the harm inflicted on vulnerable children by fraudulently shifting the cost of potentially unlawful medical interventions to taxpayers and insurers.
While California law treats gender-affirming medical care for minors as legal, minors cannot independently consent to puberty blockers, hormones, or surgery.
According to the California Attorney General, state law defines gender-affirming care as “medically necessary health care” that respects the patient’s gender identity as the patient experiences it. A federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) rule finalized in August 2026 and scheduled to take effect October 13, 2026, bars federal Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) reimbursement for puberty blockers, hormones, and surgery for beneficiaries under 18 (Medicaid) or 19 (CHIP). California and other states have sued to block the rule.
A California native and Navy mom, Katy lives in Sacramento, CA.
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Interesting article. However I think we need to stop using their made up language. There is no such thing as gender affirming care. It’s childhood sterilization and genital mutilation.
Absolutely correct! The left has absconded the language and we need to take it back. For instance, instead of saying transgender, like transgender athletes, everyone needs to refer to them as cross-dressing athletes. I mean, who is gonna go sit in a fire station and call them self a fire truck? Same thing.
YES. It’s about time! Of course it’s absolutely astounding that it ever happened in the first place! And why it was never treated as a criminal act is still beyond me.