Hospitals in a handful of states are under attack from the Trump administration for allegedly continuing to provide gender-affirming care for children despite Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s drive to stop such practices.
In a Thursday post on X, US Department of Health and Human Services General Counsel Mike Stuart announced that he’d referred six hospitals for investigation to the HHS Office of Inspector General “for allegedly failing to protect our children from sex-rejecting procedures- procedures that cause permanent terrible harm.”
“These hospitals appear to continue to operate outside recognized standards of healthcare” as well as outside Kennedy’s “declaration that sex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective.”
Stuart’s announcement comes weeks after Kennedy and other HHS officials announced plans to cut off Medicaid reimbursements to any hospitals that provide individuals under 19 with gender-affirming care.
The announcement also follows Senate confirmation of Thomas Bell as the inspector general overseeing the HHS. In a confirmation hearing, Bell said he planned to launch investigations “to support the initiatives” of President
Stuart in his post listed Boston Children’s Hospital, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, New York University—Langone Health, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Nemours Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children, and Doernbecher Children’s Hospital.
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