Oakland hospitals must continue providing gender-affirming healthcare in the face of restrictions and threats from the Trump administration, the city\u2019s leaders voted on Monday.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Oakland City Council condemns any healthcare providers and insurance carriers that are preemptively stopping, delaying, or impeding patients\u2019 access to state-protected, medically necessary gender-affirming care, prior to full legal implementation of federal regulations or changes in statute,\u201d says a resolution<\/a> passed unanimously by the council.<\/p>\n Councilmembers Zac Unger, Rowena Brown, and Charlene Wang authored the resolution, which has strong language but doesn\u2019t include penalties for medical providers that flout the demands.<\/p>\n Gender-affirming care is defined by the council as medication, surgery, and counseling that supports a patient\u2019s gender identity when it\u2019s different from what they were assigned at birth. This could include hormone therapy, operations to change one\u2019s outward appearance, or puberty blockers for adolescents, for example.<\/p>\n \u201cStudies<\/a> consistently show<\/a> that when transgender people have access to affirming healthcare, their mental health improves, and rates of depression and suicide risk decrease<\/a> significantly,\u201d wrote Unger in a memo. \u201cGender-affirming care is life-saving care.\u201d<\/p>\n In January 2025, President Donald Trump issued an executive order<\/a> directing the federal government to stop funding and supporting this care for youth under 19, describing it as \u201cchemical and surgical mutilation.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n At the end of the year, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services proposed two rules<\/a> that would prevent hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to youth \u2014 which the administration calls \u201csex-rejecting procedures\u201d \u2014 from receiving Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement. Almost all California hospitals cover at least half of their inpatient care with this funding<\/a>.<\/p>\n In response, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said gender-affirming healthcare is protected by the California constitution. The state has joined multiple lawsuits challenging the Trump administration\u2019s actions on this topic.<\/p>\n \u201cThese attacks happening from the Trump administration, especially on our youth, it\u2019s not just unfortunate or disappointing,\u201d said Brown at Monday\u2019s meeting, \u201cit\u2019s actually appalling.\u201d<\/p>\n Oakland is home to three major medical institutions: Sutter, Kaiser Permanente, and UC San Francisco. Sutter temporarily stopped providing gender-affirming services, and Kaiser last summer abruptly stopped providing surgeries to patients 18 and under. Kaiser told The Oaklandside in a statement<\/a> last year that the company made this \u201cdifficult decision\u201d in response to the federal government\u2019s messaging.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cOur healthcare providers must not crumble under Trump administration pressure,\u201d wrote Unger in his memo.<\/p>\n