Protests Erupt in Chicago After Lurie Children’s Rolls Back Trans Youth Care

Lurie was one of six hospitals targeted by the HHS last week over the provision of legal and medically necessary care for trans patients.

Lurie Children’s Hospital // Laura Brown NMH Communications

Hundreds of trans patients, their families, and community activists mobilized last week to protest outside Lurie Children’s Hospital, braving Chicago’s bitter winter cold to do so. Lurie—the only independent, research-driven children’s hospital in Illinois—has announced it will no longer prescribe life-saving puberty blockers and hormones to trans minors at its pediatric gender clinic, unless they are an existing patient already on these regimens.

In a statement shared with Erin in the Morning, the hospital cited federal threats as the catalyst for the changes. “As we await Federal court rulings and assess the rapidly evolving legal landscape, at this time, Lurie Children’s will not initiate gender-affirming medications for patients under age 18 who have not previously been treated with these therapies by our team,” the statement reads.

“Actions by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including their announcement on January 15th of a referral for an investigation of Lurie Children’s, have resulted in this decision,” it continued. “This threatens our ability to care for all of our patients.”

But protestors challenged this narrative. “Let us be clear: this is pre-compliance,” Trans Up Front Illinois, a grassroots advocacy group, said in its own statement on Jan. 20. “No hospital system has lost federal funding. No court has ruled. No law has changed. What we are witnessing is the result of pressure designed to intimidate health care providers and families before any enforcement has occurred.”

Lurie was one of six hospitals targeted by HHS General Counsel Mike Stuart last week over the provision of legal and medically necessary care for trans youth. The Jan. 15 announcement also singled out hospitals in Delaware, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New York and Oregon.

A tweet by Mike Stuart from Jan 15.

Federal officials say they’re taking aim at hospitals providing gender-affirming care to trans youth (which the right is now calling “sex-rejecting procedures,” in an attempt to erase trans identities). It’s not the first time the HHS has referred trans-friendly hospitals to the Office of the Inspector General to intimidate and harass providers. Denver Health and Children’s Hospital Colorado also recently scaled back care because the HHS “referred” them for “investigation” to the OIG.

Lurie already stopped providing gender-affirming surgeries for trans patients under age 19 in February, after President Donald Trump signed an anti-trans health care executive order. However, executive orders do not hold the weight of law, and that rollback, too, was widely seen as complying in advance in an attempt to avoid costly legal battles.

“Not only may this decision represent a failure to provide medically appropriate care to its patients, but we are also exploring whether Lurie Children’s may be in violation of the law by potentially denying care to trans patients,” Brian Johnson, CEO of Equality Illinois, said at the time. “Gender-affirming care is essential, evidence-based, and life-saving, and any rollback of such services puts vulnerable youth at risk.”

“Many of Lurie’s patients were referred for surgery to nearby Northwestern Memorial Hospital,” WBEZ Chicago reports, “which then canceled their appointments.”

Providers around the country have also followed suit, and in many cases, it has thrust trans patients into chaos and disarray.

There are initiatives dedicated to helping families impacted by care bans and pediatric gender clinic closures such as the Trans Youth Emergency Project, Trans Up Front’s Gender Affirming Care Navigation System, and Elevated Access—plus fact sheets compiled by organizations including the ACLU and Lawyers for Good Government.

For many, Lurie’s retreat was seen as a long time coming. The Department of Health and Human Services has launched a full-scale assault on gender-affirming care for youth. While no federal law banning gender-affirming care has been passed, the agency is attempting to inflate its own power and authority by cracking down on it anyway, using federal funding as a carrot on a stick—essentially holding all patients hostage.

Similarly, Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego announced Tuesday it would no longer provide “medical interventions, procedures and prescriptions” to transgender patients under age 18 seeking gender-affirming care.

A Rady spokesperson said continuity of care would otherwise “affect our role and responsibilities as a provider participating in federal programs such as Medicaid and Medicare, which are essential,” as per The San Diego Union-Tribune.

Rady did not respond to Erin in the Morning’s request for comment. Transfamily Support Services, a California-based trans advocacy group, will be leading a protest outside of Rady this Saturday at 11 a.m.

Meanwhile, proposals for anti-trans federal funding cuts to hospitals are still hanging in the balance. The Federal Register is still open for public comment until 5 p.m. on Feb. 17. You can submit input here and here.