NYU Langone Health remains silent three weeks after the New York attorney general\u2019s deadline for the medical center to restore gender-affirming care for minors.<\/p>\n
Attorney General Letitia James has not announced an investigation into the medical center despite threatening \u201cfurther action<\/a>\u201d if it failed to resume offering puberty-blocking medication and hormone therapy to minors by March 11. Her office previously alleged<\/a> that ending transgender care for minors may have violated state anti-discrimination laws.<\/p>\n In a March 18 letter to James, U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche argued NYU Langone did not break state law, which prohibits gender- and disability-based discrimination. He also claimed<\/a> that the U.S. Department of Justice would \u201ctake all necessary actions to defend the hospital\u2019s decision\u201d if the medical center faced a lawsuit from James\u2019 office.<\/p>\n \u201cRepresentatives of NYU Langone have reported to the Department that the hospital has reviewed these letters and does not intend to offer sex-rejecting procedures to minors,\u201d Blanche wrote.<\/p>\n NYU Langone is among more than 40 hospitals<\/a> nationwide that have terminated some form of gender-affirming care for youth since President Donald Trump took office. The medical center\u2019s website currently says that it provides psychological counseling<\/a> for transgender adolescents and their families.<\/p>\n Christine Petrin, a physician who provides gender-affirming care for adults at Settlement Health in East Harlem and the former president of Doctors for America, worries NYU Langone\u2019s decision might cause other medical providers to follow suit, shrinking the list of treatment options for transgender minors.<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know how much longer those programs are going to be open,\u201d Petrin told WSN. \u201cIt leaves us providers in a position of determining, \u2018If I can\u2019t provide this care, am I also breaking a state law by being put in that position?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n NYU Langone stopped offering<\/a> hormone therapy and puberty blockers<\/a> to minors on Feb. 17\u00a0after the Trump administration threatened to pull Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals that treat transgender youth. The next day, about three dozen students and advocates attended an hourlong rally outside the Stonewall Inn. Around 80 people later gathered<\/a> at a March protest outside NYU Langone\u2019s Kips Bay location.
In addition to the demonstrations, more than 70 New York state senators, state assembly members and city council members signed a February letter<\/a> demanding that NYU Langone \u201cimmediately reinstate\u201d gender affirming care for minors.\u00a0<\/p>\n