Families furious as NJ hospital denies cutting off trans youth treatment

🏥 Families say doctors told them treatment for trans minors is ending with little warning

⚖️ Hospital system insists existing patients can still receive care

📉 Federal pressure and policy threats are reshaping care nationwide

Parents across New Jersey say they were blindsided after being told their children could no longer receive gender-affirming care through one of the state’s largest hospital networks.

According to reporting by New Jersey Monitor, multiple families said doctors and staff recently informed them that treatment was being halted, in some cases immediately and without referrals to new providers.

Hospital denies policy change amid federal pressure

RWJBarnabas disputes those claims, saying its policy has not changed and that existing minor patients can still access care. The system said it stopped accepting new pediatric patients for gender-affirming care last fall.

In a statement, the hospital network said it remains committed to patient care while navigating evolving federal rules that could impact doctors and hospitals providing these services.

That pressure includes actions tied to Donald Trump’s administration, which has pushed to restrict gender-affirming care for minors and threatened to cut federal funding for providers who continue offering it.

Legal battles and uncertainty continue

New Jersey is among more than 20 states challenging federal efforts to restrict gender-affirming care.

Last week, a federal judge said the government overreached by issuing a declaration that called treatments like puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries unsafe and ineffective for young people experiencing gender dysphoria, according to a ruling Thursday in Oregon.

Judge Mustafa Kasubhai ruled that Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. didn't go through the proper administrative procedures in December when issuing the declaration, which warned doctors that they could be excluded from federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid if they provide these treatments.

The lawsuit says that HHS’s declaration seeks to coerce providers to stop providing gender-affirming care and circumvent legal requirements for policy changes. It also says federal law requires the public to be given notice and an opportunity to comment before substantively changing health policy — neither of which, the suit says, was done before the declaration was issued.

HHS’s declaration is based on a peer-reviewed report that the department conducted earlier this year that urged greater reliance on behavioral therapy rather than broad gender-affirming care for youths with gender dysphoria.

The report questioned standards for the treatment of transgender youth issued by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health and raised concerns that adolescents may be too young to give consent to life-changing treatments that could result in future infertility.

Major medical groups and those who treat transgender young people have sharply criticized the report as inaccurate, and most major U.S. medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, continue to oppose restrictions on transgender care and services for young people.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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