Los Angeles children’s hospital to shutter transgender youth program

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Jun 16, 2025 / 13:49 pm (CNA).

Children’s Hospital Los Angeles will close its Center for Transyouth Health and Development and its transgender surgical program in July, citing federal and state-level funding pressures.

The hospital told families in an email that there was “no viable alternative” to closing the clinic, one of the nation’s largest, citing “the increasingly severe impacts of federal administrative actions and proposed policies,” including an executive order issued by President Donald Trump earlier in the year.

The center’s last day of operation will be July 22, according to the email, which was signed by clinic leaders including Paul Viviano and Kelly Johnson.

Earlier this year several hospitals in the United States suspended their child transgender programs after Trump’s order “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which moved to halt the “maiming and sterilizing [of] a growing number of impressionable children” due to transgender ideology.

The executive order directed that medical institutions that receive federal research or education grants must not participate in the “chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”

The clinic leaders in their letter this week further cited directives from U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and inquiries from federal authorities regarding quality standards at the children’s hospital as well as a May review on medical protocols from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Those factors, along with the FBI’s solicitation of tips to report hospitals performing transgender procedures on children, “strongly signal this administration’s intent to take swift and decisive action, both criminal and civil, against any entity it views as being in violation of the executive order,” the letter states.

The leaders said they would be hosting meetings in the coming days to discuss the looming closure.

According to a CDC study published last year, 3.3% of all U.S. high schoolers “identify as transgender,” with a further 2.2% of high schoolers “questioning” their “gender identity.”

Numerous U.S. states have moved lately to limit transgender procedures for minors, including surgical procedures and chemical prescriptions such as puberty blockers.

Last December the United Kingdom similarly made permanent its ban on children receiving puberty-blocking drugs meant to facilitate “gender transition.”