Citing President Trump's executive order, the Children's Hospital of Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University says there are "no other viable options at this time" for what it calls "gender-affirming care."
"It's disappointing that we ever had hospitals engaging in experimental surgeries on children," says Victoria Cobb, president of The Family Foundation of Virginia. "It should've never been the case."
Yale New Haven, Kaiser Permanente, UChicago Medicine, and others have also recently decided to comply with Trump's orders, though Cobb notes that "not every hospital did it willingly."
As studies show that more than 80% of kids who deal with gender dysphoria outgrow it on their own by the time they reach late adolescence, she says this kind of experimental harm to children needs to end.
"We're hearing more and more about the entire medical industry, many of whom knew this was experimental and should've stopped it – the co-opting of the medical industry in how we ended up in this situation in the first place," Cobb laments.
She says politics are driving entire credentialing bodies of physicians, because gender transitions are a "huge money maker."
But the UK is reconsidering its approach, now emphasizing the need for more research on the long-term outcomes of gender-affirming medical treatments for young people. England and Scotland no longer prescribe puberty suppressing hormones to children.
"It's sad that we have to let places like the United Kingdom lead the way, but we're getting there," says Cobb. "We just need to get there fast for the sake of the children."
She concludes that "whatever it takes" needs to be done to ensure that children are no longer roped into the false idea that undergoing mutilative surgeries and becoming medical patients for life is beneficial for them.
