NYU Langone Health joined a list of hospitals that have struck deals with the Trump administration to end gender-affirming care services for minors, the U.S. Department of Justice announced on Friday.
NYU Langone will pay $8.5 million, similar to a “monetary penalty” paid by Mount Sinai Health System, according to the announcement.
The DOJ is announcing the deal with NYU Langone, which serves the New York City region and Long Island, to shutter its services mere weeks after Mount Sinai reached a similar deal with the White House earlier this month. Gothamist previously reported that NYU Langone and Mount Sinai ended their trans youth health programs earlier this year.
A handful of other major hospital systems across the United States have also recently reached agreements with the White House to stop providing gender-affirming care services to minors, including the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, which reached a deal with the DOJ on Friday.
NYU Langone has been cooperative in the federal agency’s investigation of “entities potentially violating federal law,” according to a Trump administration official.
“I want to be clear: our efforts and investigations into other providers are ongoing,” Brett Shumate, assistant attorney general for the Civil Division, said in a statement. “Those that have broken the law and not resolved their potential liability will be prosecuted to the fullest extent possible.”
NYU Langone initially ended its services for trans youth earlier this year after the Trump administration threatened to pull federal funding from hospitals, including proposing stripping access to Medicaid and Medicare, which are major sources of revenue.
An NYU Langone spokesperson said the hospital reached the agreement to get the DOJ to stop its ongoing investigations, therefore preventing the hospital system from having to turn over provide “confidential information” on any patient who was treated for gender dysphoria as a minor.
The hospital had been subpoenaed by the Trump administration to turn over proximate health information on minors who had received gender-affirming care in May.
“NYU Langone has not entered into this settlement because of any wrongdoing and has affirmatively denied any wrongdoing or liability in the agreement,” said spokesperson Steve Ritea. “We believe this resolution is in the best interests of our patients and their families, protecting them as well as our providers and the institution from prolonged litigation.”
State and city officials railed against NYU Langone for reaching an agreement with the Trump administration.
“Today’s decision by NYU Langone to enter into a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice is yet another alarming example of a private institution caving to pressure from the federal government that will have real and serious consequences for young trans and gender nonconforming New Yorkers,” Mayor Zohran Mamdani said in a statement. “The settlement politicizes families’ most private medical decisions, vilifies lifesaving care, and undermines professional medical judgment.”
U.S. Rep Jerrold Nadler noted similar frustration.
“I am disappointed in NYU Langone for acquiescing to the pressure from the Trump administration to violate the constitutional rights and dignity of patients seeking gender affirming healthcare,” Nadler said in a statement.
Lambda Legal, NYCLU and ACLU, counsel for the class in Coe v. Blanche, a federal class action lawsuit that challenges the DOJ’s attempts to seize private medical records of transgender youth, collectively said the settlements with NYU Langone and Mount Sinai were “beyond shameful.”
“While we don’t know the full terms of the agreement, we do know it is another capitulation that puts political retribution over hospitals’ ethical and legal obligations to, and the well-being of, trans youth,” the groups said in a statement. “Transgender young people deserve access to gender-affirming care, which helps them live as their authentic selves and can be lifesaving.”
Kei Williams, the executive director of the advocacy group The New Pride Agenda, said today’s settlement was “yet another devastating blow.”
“This is no longer one hospital making an isolated decision. We are watching a pattern take hold,” Williams said in a statement. “Major health systems are retreating from gender-affirming care for a specific community under the threat of investigations, funding losses and political retribution, leaving patients and families with fewer places to turn.”
The settlements result as an “encroaching shadow ban” for transgender youth and their families, as care becomes inaccessible because institutions are too afraid to provide it, Williams said.
The New York attorney general’s office said it is reviewing Friday’s settlement.
This story was updated with statements from elected officials, legal groups and advocacy organizations.