UChicago Medicine to discontinue all gender-affirming pediatric care
The decision, announced Friday, leaves no room for ongoing transitional care, and an unknown number of patients in limbo.
'UChicago Medicine has reached the difficult decision that, in response to continued federal actions, it will discontinue all gender-affirming pediatric care effective immediately,' the hospital said in a statement. 'We understand that this news will have a significant impact on our patients.'
The announcement by UChicago Medicine, the esteemed century-old academic medical health system based at the University of Chicago, follows a similar decision by Rush University System for Health, which 'paused' hormonal care to new patients under the age of 18 beginning July 1. Rush is continuing to offer mental and behavioral support, but referring gender care patients that need additional treatment to other providers.
UChicago Medicine will no longer be on that shrinking list of hospitals providing gender-affirming pediatric care, which can include counseling, medications to delay puberty and surgery.
In January, President Donald Trump issued an executive order ostensibly protecting children under 19 from 'chemical and surgical mutilation' that threatened to withhold federal research grants as well as Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement for institutions that provide such pediatric gender care services.
'We reached this conclusion in light of emerging federal actions, which would place at risk our ability to care for all Medicare or Medicaid patients,' UChicago Medicine said in its statement. 'These patients make up the majority of those we serve. As the largest Medicaid provider in Illinois, this step is necessary to ensure UChicago Medicine can continue serving our broader community and delivering on our mission.'
Federal pressure to end gender-affirming pediatric care has caused several Chicago-area hospitals to curtail such services.
In February, Lurie Children's Hospital paused gender-affirming surgeries for patients younger than 19, a policy which remains in place, the hospital said earlier this week.
Meanwhile, UI Health allegedly canceled an Illinois teenager's gender-affirming chest surgery, according to a February federal court filing. Reached earlier this week, UI Health would not say if it was still providing gender-affirming care to minors.
As for UChicago Medicine, all gender-affirming pediatric care ends Friday.
'Our focus right now is working with affected patients to discuss options going forward,' the hospital said in its statement.
rchannick@chicagotribune.com
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'We also considered, for each program, whether the governmental service provided could be provided better by State or local governments (if provided at all),' Vought wrote. Disability rights advocates doubt that state protection and advocacy groups — known as P&As — would see any dollar not specifically earmarked for them. They sue states, so the advocates don't want states deciding whether their work gets funded. The 1975 federal law setting up P&As declared them independent of the states, and newer laws reinforced that. 'We do need an independent system that can hold them and other wrongdoers accountable,' said Rocky Nichols, the Kansas center's executive director. Helping people with disabilities navigate Medicaid Nichols' center has helped Matthew Hull for years with getting the state to cover services, and Hull hopes to find a job. He uses a wheelchair; a Medicaid-provided nurse helps him run errands. 'I need to be able to do that so I can keep my strength up,' he said, adding that activity preserves his health. Medicaid applicants often had a difficult time working through its rules even before the tax and budget law's recent changes, said Sean Jackson, Disability Rights Texas' executive director. With fewer dollars, he said, 'As cases are coming into us, we're going to have to take less cases.' The Texas group receives money from a legal aid foundation and other sources, but federal funds still are 68% of its dollars. The Kansas center and Disability Rights Iowa rely entirely on federal funds. 'For the majority it would probably be 85% or higher,' said Marlene Sallo, executive director of the National Disability Rights Network, which represents P&As. The Trump administration's proposals suggest it wants to shut down P&As, said Steven Schwartz, who founded the Center for Public Representation, a Massachusetts-based organization that works with them on lawsuits. Investigating allegations of abuse and pushing states Federal funding meant a call in 2009 to Disability Rights Iowa launched an immediate investigation of a program employing men with developmental disabilities in a turkey processing plant. Authorities said they lived in a dangerous, bug-infested bunkhouse and were financially exploited. Without the dollars, executive director Catherine Johnson said, 'That's maybe not something we could have done.' The Kansas center's private interview in 2004 with one of Jensen's fellow residents eventually led to long federal prison sentences for the couple operating the Kaufman House, a home for people with mental illnesses about 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Wichita. And it wasn't until Disability Rights Iowa filed a federal lawsuit in 2023 that the state agreed to draft a plan to provide community services for children with severe mental and behavioral needs. For 15 years, Schwartz's group and Disability Rights Texas have pursued a federal lawsuit alleging Texas warehouses several thousand people with intellectual and developmental disabilities in nursing homes without adequate services. Texas put at least three men in homes after they'd worked in the Iowa turkey plant. Last month, a federal judge ordered work to start on a plan to end the 'severe and ongoing' problems. Schwartz said Disability Rights Texas did interviews and gathered documents crucial to the case. 'There are no better eyes or ears,' he said. ___ Hunter reported from Atlanta.
