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2 Wisconsin hospitals halt gender-affirming care for minors
Two Wisconsin health systems will halt some transgender medical care for minors, citing a new federal directive, as families and advocates warn the changes could harm children.
WISCONSIN - Two major Wisconsin health care systems will no longer offer certain medical treatments to transgender and nonbinary patients age 17 and younger, aligning their policies with a new federal directive that threatens the loss of key funding for noncompliance.
What we know:
The move has reignited a politically charged debate over how the care should be defined. Advocates refer to it as "gender-affirming care," while opponents describe it as "sex-rejecting."
The World Health Organization defines gender-affirming care as a range of interventions that can include social, psychological, behavioral and medical support. Medical care can involve hormone treatments or surgery.
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Both Children’s Wisconsin and UW Health say their decisions follow a December directive from U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
This week, Children’s Wisconsin and UW Health announced they’ll stop offering this care to transgender children 17 and younger.
Children’s Wisconsin is no longer providing drug treatment and UW Health says it’s pausing "puberty blockers" and hormone therapy.
Local perspective:
A Wisconsin mother of a transgender child said the changes will cause unnecessary harm. Sarah M., who asked that her full identity not be used to protect her child’s privacy and her family’s safety, spoke with FOX6 about raising her 14-year-old transgender daughter.
"… it's not my job to tell my kid who they are. It's their job to tell me who they are and for me to support that," said Sarah M. "When my child said, you know, 'I'm not a boy. I'm a girl,' and was very clear in that, and that I could see that the inability to express that fully was causing my child distress — that's when we determined that care was required."
The other side:
Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos praised the decisions.
"We realized the fact that children should not be mutilated in the way that they have been. It's not gender-affirming care. It's really gender mutilation," Vos said.
Dig deeper:
The announcements align with a December directive from Kennedy, who referred to the care as "sex-rejecting" and said it is neither safe nor effective. The directive also allows HHS to exclude individuals or entities that fail to comply from federal health care programs.
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That could mean withholding Medicare and Medicaid funding — which hospitals need to survive.
Sarah said her family anticipated the change more than a year ago and developed a contingency plan. Her daughter will continue receiving the same care, but the family will pay out of pocket.
"Gender-affirming care, in terms of what has been provided to my child and to other children, is well-researched and has been found to be effective," Sarah said. "And frankly, I think they're misinformed."
What you can do:
The federal rule proposal remains subject to public comment and review. Anyone wishing to provide public comment can do so through the Federal Register.
What they're saying:
Children's Wisconsin provided the following statement:
"At Children’s Wisconsin, we strongly believe everyone, including LGBTQ+ kids, should be treated with the support, respect, dignity and compassion they deserve. We are communicating to patients that, due to escalating legal and federal regulatory risk facing systems and providers across the nation, we are currently unable to provide gender-affirming pharmacologic care. Mental and behavioral health services will continue for patients and families who wish to receive this care from us."
UW Health provided the following statement: "UW Health is committed to providing high-quality, compassionate and patient-centered care to our patients and families, including LGBTQ+ patients. Due to recent federal actions, UW Health is pausing prescribing puberty blockers and hormone therapy as part of gender-affirming care for patients under 18 years of age. We recognize the uncertainty faced by our impacted patients and families seeking this gender-affirming care and will continue to support their health and well-being."
The Source: FOX6 News talked with the mother of a transgender child and utilized information from Speaker Robin Vos, Children's Wisconsin, UW Health and U.S. Health and Human Services.