Advocate Health Care has announced it will no longer provide transgender services for minors, becoming the latest hospital system to end such practices after the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal funding from institutions that continue them.
The hospital network operates 69 hospitals across six states, including 11 hospitals and more than 200 healthcare centers in Illinois, making it one of the largest providers in the state. In a statement to the Chicago Tribune, Advocate confirmed it revised its policy to “no longer provide or prescribe gender-affirming care medications for patients under age 19.”
“We recognize that this is a deeply complex issue, and this decision was made after a multi-disciplinary team spent numerous hours carefully considering the options and outcomes,” Advocate said. “This new policy allows our hospitals, clinics and pharmacies to continue caring for all patients’ health needs in the changing federal environment.”
The move comes in response to two executive orders President Donald Trump signed upon taking office that set federal policy to recognize “two sexes, male and female” and threatened to cut funding to institutions providing transgender procedures for minors. Last month, the Department of Justice confirmed it sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics involved in “performing transgender medical procedures on children.”
“Medical professionals and organizations that mutilated children in the service of a warped ideology will be held accountable by this Department of Justice,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the time.
Other major Chicago-area hospitals, including UI Health, UChicago Medicine, Rush University Medical Center, and Lurie Children’s Hospital, have also stopped transgender procedures for minors in response to the administration’s stance.
On August 1, Illinois and 15 other states filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, accusing it of “intimidating providers into ceasing care through threats of civil and criminal prosecution.”
