Children’s Hospital Los Angeles halts transgender care

According to emails, the Trump administration hospital, the children’s hospital, Los Angeles, will have been proven for trans children for trans and young adults for a long time, according to emails examined by the Times.

The Center for Transyouth Health and Development began to indicate to its nearly 3,000 families of patients in the closure on Thursday, saying that there was “no viable alternative” which would allow the safety security hospital to continue specialized care.

“There is no doubt that this is a painful and important change for our organization and a challenge to the mission, the vision and the values ​​of Chla,” wrote the hospital leaders in an email on Thursday morning.

The email said that the decision to close the center on July 22 “follows a long and in -depth assessment of the increasingly serious impacts of federal administrative actions and proposed policies” which have emerged since the hospital briefly interrupted the initiation of care for certain patients this winter.

The note sent shock waves in the community of united patients, of which members had recently signed a sigh of relief after the CHLA reversed its brief prohibition to take care of new patients in February.

“We are just disappointed and frightened and enraged,” said Maxine, the mother of a current patient, who refused to give him the surname for fear of the attacks against his son. “The challenge is how we will announce the news of this child who has had such a positive experience with everyone in children.”

In email, the leaders said that continuing to exploit the center would endanger the hospital’s ability to take care of “hundreds of thousands” of other children, noting that federal agencies, including the Ministry of Justice, Health and Social Services, and the Centers of Medicare and Medicaid administration had warned the consequences of doctors and hospitals.

“These threats are no longer theoretical,” said the note. “Taken together, the prosecutor general of the memo, the review HHS and the recent solicitation of the FBI advice to report hospitals and service providers strongly report the intention of this administration to take rapid and decisive measures, both criminal and civil, against any entity, it considers to be in violation of the executive decree.”

The Hospital Transyouth Center is among the oldest and most important programs in the country, and among the only installations that provides puberty blockers, hormones and surgical procedures for young people on public insurance.

But the hospital also depends much more on public funding than any other pediatric medical center in California – a situation that leaves it particularly exposed to the Trump administration. About 40% of Los Angeles pediatric beds are in children.

“Chla is responsible for navigating in this complex and uncertain regulatory environment in a way that allows us to stay open as much as possible,” wrote managers. “In the end, this painful and difficult decision was motivated by the need to protect Chla’s ability to operate in the middle of significant external pressures outside our control.”

Demonstrations broke out in February after the hospital briefly interrupted hormone therapy for some patients under 19, in response to President Trump’s decree.

This decision was reversed a few weeks later, in the midst of the pressure of the families of patients, the defense groups of civil rights LGBTQ + and the Ministry of Justice of the State.

“Let me be clear: Californian law has not changed and hospitals and clinics have the legal obligation to provide equal access to health services,” he. General Rob Bonta wrote on February 5, days in the break.

The California Ministry of Justice did not immediately respond to requests for comments.

The internal electronic mail on Thursday of the Children’s Directorate notes that the pressure from the federal government has increased at the same time as state support has reflected.

“In recent months, California’s in -depth budgetary crisis, President Trump’s executive decrees, federal legislation and federal regulations, and growing economic uncertainty have made the situation even more disastrous,” the email said.

Activists say that the closure establishes a dangerous precedent.

“The CHLA must be a leader in this area and resist the Trump administration, because other hospitals take note of what they are doing,” said Maebe Pudlow, a non -binary trans activist and a member of the Silverlake district council who helped direct the demonstrations when care was interrupted this winter.

“It seems very conveniently timed when everyone focuses on the ice raids that take place in Los Angeles,” continued the activist. “I think it’s contemptible.”

Maxine, the mother, was more measured.

“We are slowly going underground, underground, underground,” said the mother. “You put something in place, then you have to prepare for when it is removed. We just try to stay a few steps in advance, sticking with other parents, knowing who are our allies.”