A major Minnesota children's hospital announced it will suspend prescribing sex-change drugs for minors after facing mounting pressure from the Trump administration's crackdown on pediatric gender treatments.
Children's Minnesota said it plans to temporarily halt puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for patients under 18, citing increased federal scrutiny of hospitals providing such care.
The announcement was posted to the hospital's "Gender Health Program" web page.
The hospital said it has "recently experienced an increase in federal actions directed at pediatric health systems like ours that provide this care."
"These actions jeopardize the stability of Minnesota's only comprehensive pediatric health care system, and they threaten our clinicians' ability to practice medicine now and in the future," the statement said.
"If conditions remain the same, we plan to temporarily pause prescribing puberty-suppressing medications and pubertal hormones (estrogen and testosterone) for patients under age 18 in our Gender Health program, effective Friday, Feb. 27, 2026."
Children's Minnesota said its Gender Health Program will remain open and continue offering what it described as "supportive care, mental health services and guidance regarding medical and non-medical treatment options."
The hospital called the decision a "difficult" one and said that gender-transition care is "evidence-based and lifesaving for transgender and gender diverse youth."
The move follows an announcement by the Department of Health and Human Services on Dec. 18, 2025, proposing regulations that would bar hospitals from providing sex-change drugs and surgeries to minors as a condition of participating in Medicare and Medicaid.
HHS said that "sex-rejecting procedures on children," including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, "expose them to irreversible damage, including infertility, impaired sexual function, diminished bone density, altered brain development, and other irreversible physiological effects."
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said physicians have a moral duty to protect children.
"Doctors assume a solemn obligation to protect children," Kennedy said.
"Doctors across the country now provide needless and irreversible sex-rejecting procedures that violate their sacred Hippocratic oath, endangering the very lives that they are sworn to safeguard."
Kennedy also accused major medical groups of misleading families.
"The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, peddled a lie that chemical and surgical sex-rejecting procedures could be good for children who suffer from gender dysphoria," he said.
HHS has launched investigations into hospitals nationwide.
In January, HHS general counsel Mike Stuart referred Children's Minnesota and several other facilities for federal investigation.
The hospital says it does not perform sex-change surgeries on minors.
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