The New York attorney general’s office has ordered NYU Langone Health to immediately resume offering services such as puberty blockers and hormones to trans and nonbinary children after shutting down its Transgender Youth Health Program last month.
In a Feb. 25 letter reviewed by Gothamist, the attorney general’s office states that New York law prohibits discrimination based on gender identity and notes the hospital network still offers those services to other adolescent patients.
The attorney general gave the hospital system 10 business days — until March 11 — to show it was in compliance with the order. Steve Ritea, a spokesperson for NYU Langone declined to comment on how the health system would respond.
The dispute highlights the conflict between New York state’s sweeping antidiscrimination laws and the Trump administration's efforts to change federal policy to limit care options for trans and nonbinary minors. The White House has threatened financial harm to hospitals that continue to offer such services.
The letter, signed by Darsana Srinivasan, the chief of the attorney general’s health care bureau, states that the attorney general’s office has received several complaints about NYU Langone ending its Transgender Youth Health Program from patients and their families.
“NYU Langone appears to be suddenly and indefinitely cancelling transgender children’s future appointments thereby jeopardizing access to medically necessary health care for some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers,” Srinivasan wrote.
Ritea previously said NYU Langone was ending its Transgender Youth Health Program because its medical director was leaving and because of the “current regulatory environment.”
Trans health care faces an uncertain future in New York and across the country as the Trump administration considers a new policy that would pull funding from hospitals that offer treatment for gender dysphoria to minors. The Trump administration says such “sex-rejecting” treatments cause irreversible harm.
However, those proposed regulations have yet to be finalized.
“NYU Langone’s change in policy is self-imposed; there has been no change in federal law to require the cessation of medically necessary transgender health care,” the letter from the attorney general’s office states.
Parents of transgender children have told Gothamist that Mount Sinai Health System has also taken similar action to discontinue services in recent weeks. Mount Sinai has not responded to questions about their procedures.
