Rush University Medical Center is the latest Chicago-area hospital to halt its gender-affirming care for minors as the Trump administration threatens funding to institutions that offer it.
Rush “paused” its hormonal care for new patients under 18, according to spokesperson Tobin Klinger. The hospital hasn’t provided gender-affirming surgery for minors since 2023.
The hospital system will still provide all gender-affirming care to adults, Klinger said, and mental health services and social services are still available to minors. For patients seeking care not offered at Rush, the hospital will refer them elsewhere, Klinger said.
“Rush continues to be a strong advocate for the LGBTQ+ community,” Klinger said in the statement.
Minor patients already receiving gender-affirming care at Rush will be able to continue, according to Asher McMaher, executive director of Trans Up Front, an advocacy organization that advises Rush on trans healthcare.
McMaher said the hospital is doing what it can under mounting pressure from the federal government. The Rush program is small, they said, with fewer than 10 pediatric patients seeking gender-affirming care, and the hospital was already struggling to add new patients.
“This is an unprecedented time,” McMaher said.
The decision follows President Donald Trump’s executive order that cuts federal research grants from institutions, such as hospitals, that offer gender care — such as hormone therapy, puberty blockers and surgery — to patients under the age of 19. And last month, the U.S. Supreme Court last month upheld a Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors, protecting the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back protections for transgender people.
Hospital systems have been navigating the politics surrounding access to gender-affirming care for minors in the months since Trump’s inauguration. That’s despite Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul joining 14 other attorneys general in February in vowing to protect access to the treatment.
Lurie Children’s Hospital paused gender-affirming surgery in February, prompting hundreds to gather outside the hospital in a protest organized by McMaher and Trans Up Front. The hospital still provides all other gender-affirming care including hormone therapy and puberty blockers.
University of Illinois Health was sued in February by advocacy groups for canceling surgery for a 17-year-old transgender boy. UI Health didn’t answer questions about what gender-affirming care it currently provides, but said in a statement: “UI Health is committed to providing inclusive care to our community. We will continue to provide gender-affirming care to transgender patients in accordance with the law.”
Upon signing the executive order, Trump said gender-affirming care is “chemical and surgical mutilation.” Trans kids in Chicago and their families disagree.
Channyn Lynne Parker, CEO of LGBTQ+ rights organization Brave Space Alliance and interim CEO of Equality Illinois, transitioned when she was in high school and says access to gender-affirming care is the reason she’s alive, successful and healthy today. A 2021 study from the Journal of the American Medical Association concluded access to gender-affirming care is linked to improved psychological health and lower rates of suicidal ideation.
“When I hear people refer to surgeries as mutilation, I am not mutilated,” she said. “I was given life-saving medical interventions that caused me to have the opportunities to live a fulfilled life.”
Parker said hospitals like Rush have their “back against a wall” in the face of threats from the federal government and called on lawmakers to make a “protective shield” to defend providers of gender-affirming care.
Drawing on her experience transitioning in adolescence and advocating for trans youth, Parker urged trans youth to stand firm in their identity despite obstacles to care.
“I’d say to trans youth in this moment that you know who you are, stand firm in that,” she said. “No policy decision can ever erase who you are in your core being.”
The U.S. Department of Justice last week announced that it had sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and lawyers it said performed “transgender medical procedures on children.”
But medical organizations like the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics support access to gender-affirming care.
McMaher said ideally every child would have access to gender-affirming care, but that’s increasingly difficult. Rush is working to secure outside funding so it’s not as reliant on federal grants, they said.
“Hospitals are being threatened with millions and millions of dollars that fund their hospital system and they’re trying to stay under the radar,” McMaher said. “We need to support these hospital systems.”