NYU Langone Health ordered to resume its Transgender Youth Health Program within 10 days
New York Attorney General Letitia James' office has ordered NYU Langone Health to resume its Transgender Youth Health Program.
Last month, NYU Langone made the decision to stop the program after the federal government threatened to pull funding.
"Given the recent departure of our medical director, coupled with the current regulatory environment, we made the difficult decision to discontinue our Transgender Youth Health Program. We are committed to helping patients in our care manage this change. This does not impact our pediatric mental health care programs, which will continue," NYU Langone said when it announced its decision.
"NYU Langone appears to be suddenly and indefinitely cancelling transgender children's future appointments thereby jeopardizing access to medically necessary healthcare for some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers," the AG's office said in the letter.
In a letter sent last week to the hospital's lawyers, the AG's office said the move goes against New York state's discrimination laws.
"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 healthcare," the AG's office wrote.
The decision to shut down to the program came on the heels of President Trump's Jan. 2025 executive order banning gender-affirming health care, and a December Trump administration proposal to withdraw federal funds from hospitals providing gender transition treatments to young people.
Despite the executive order and proposal, the law hasn't changed, the AG's office said.
"In sum, no federal action has changed the law; medically necessary healthcare for transgender adolescents remains legal and covered by federal programs. Without a formal change in the law, meaning an action from which legal consequences will flow, such as a published final rule upheld by the courts, NYU Langone's legal obligations to its patients are unchanged," the AG's office said in the letter, which gave NYU Langone 10 days to comply, or face legal action.
