NEW YORK NY— One of New York City’s largest hospital systems faced a deadline to comply with a state order to restore gender-affirming care for transgender youth after shutting down its program last month.
NYU Langone Health announced in February that it would close its Transgender Youth Health Program, citing a challenging regulatory environment and the departure of the program’s medical director. The hospital also pointed to federal threats to withdraw funding from medical centers that provide gender-affirming care to minors.
Hospital officials said at the time they would help affected patients transition to other providers.
New York Attorney General Letitia James later ordered the hospital to resume the program, arguing that ending the treatments could violate the state’s anti-discrimination law.
In a letter earlier this month, the attorney general’s office said the hospital appeared to be cancelling future appointments for transgender youth, putting vulnerable patients at risk of losing access to medical care.
“NYU Langone appears to be suddenly and indefinitely cancelling transgender children’s future appointments, thereby jeopardizing access to medically necessary healthcare for some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers,” the AG’s letter, signed by James’s health care bureau chief, Darsana Srinivasan, stated.
State officials also said the decision to halt treatments was made by the hospital and was not required under federal law.
The attorney general’s office gave NYU Langone until March 11 to resume the services or face potential legal action.
It was not immediately clear whether state officials had taken additional steps after the deadline passed.
The dispute comes as national debate over transgender health care intensifies.
More than 70 Democratic lawmakers in New York sent a letter to NYU Langone in February urging the hospital to immediately restore gender-affirming care for minors. The lawmakers said losing access to treatment could increase the risk of suicide, depression and self-harm among transgender youth.
NYU Langone was among several hospital systems that paused gender-affirming care for minors after President Donald Trump threatened to cut federal funding to medical centers that provide such treatments.
In December, the administration proposed new rules that would block Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals that offer gender-affirming care to patients under 18. The proposal would effectively prevent hospitals from providing the care if they rely on those federal programs.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. defended the proposal at the time, saying gender-affirming treatments had caused lasting harm to young patients and should not be supported with federal funding.
“So-called gender affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said. “This is not medicine. It is malpractice.”
The proposed rules have not been finalized, and several legal challenges have been filed seeking to block them. Hospitals that depend heavily on federal health funding, however, have said the threat alone creates financial risks they cannot ignore.