NYU Langone’s decision last month to stop providing some gender-affirming treatments to patients under 19 has drawn a direct response from New York’s attorney general, who said the hospital’s actions violate state anti-discrimination protections.
In a letter sent to NYU Langone, New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office said the hospital’s decision to shutter its Transgender Youth Health Program “jeopardiz[ed] access to medically necessary healthcare for some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers.” The letter, dated Feb. 25, was made public this week.
James’ office said it would take “further action” if the hospital does not immediately resume offering hormone therapies, puberty blockers and other care to transgender youth. The letter gives NYU Langone until March 11 to demonstrate its compliance, and a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office declined to say what steps it would take if the hospital does not change its policy.
The hospital did not respond to the letter for comment. An NYU Langone spokesperson declined to comment on the attorney general’s correspondence.
NYU Langone said its policy shift, announced last month, reflected what it described as the “current regulatory environment” and the departure of a medical director. At the time, the hospital said it was “committed to helping patients in our care manage this change.”
James’ office cited the broader federal effort to restrict support for gender-affirming care for minors, including proposals announced by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that would cut federal Medicaid and Medicare funding to hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors. The attorney general’s letter said the proposals did not officially change federal law and did not impact “a medical institutions’ existing duties and obligations under New York law,” according to the letter signed by Darsana Srinivasan, the attorney general’s health care bureau chief.
Srinivasan warned that ending care for transgender youth could harm patients. “The sudden discontinuation of medically necessary transgender healthcare can have severe, negative health outcomes,” she wrote, adding: “Accordingly, the Attorney General is extremely concerned by your institution’s decision to cease the provision of care to this vulnerable, minority population.”
The policy fight has intensified across the country, the AP reported, with several hospitals pausing transgender youth treatments after an executive order issued by President Donald Trump last year that promised to withhold research and education grants to hospitals that allow what the order described as the “chemical and surgical mutilation of children.” Transgender advocacy groups and major medical associations criticized that approach.
Dr. Scott Leibowitz, a psychiatrist and board member for the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, said at the time: “This sets a very dangerous precedent for all areas of health care, if the government can cherry-pick one area of medicine to use to withhold necessary funding from entire groups of people.”