March 4, 2026

In a rare and controversial move, New York Attorney General Letitia James has ordered a Manhattan hospital to resume offering gender-transition treatment to transgender youth. NYU Langone had discontinued such treatments after funding threats from the Trump administration. It is now caught between the proverbial rock (HHS) and a hard place (NYAG).

Last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order entitled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” seeking to restrict gender-transition treatment for people under 19. HHS then threatened hospitals with a cut off of federal Medicaid and Medicare funding for continuing such treatment for children.

 

New York Attorney General Letitia James has demanded that NYU Langone resume gender-transition treatments for transgender youth after the hospital halted them due to Trump-era federal threats to cut Medicaid and Medicare funding; this move pits the hospital between federal restrictions aimed at protecting minors from potentially harmful procedures, as noted in international reports like England’s Cass Report, and New York state law that prohibits discrimination and mandates access to necessary healthcare, setting up a complex legal battle over conflicting state and federal regulations.

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