More Gender Clinics Close

Mounting political, financial, and legal pressures are poised to put more youth gender clinics out of business—or could force them to scale back services.

During the first two months of 2026, about a half-dozen U.S. gender clinics announced they would pause or discontinue some treatment programs for minors, according to hospital announcements and news reports reviewed by The Epoch Times.

The trend, which began in 2021 when states began passing laws to ban medical interventions on minors, picked up steam last year when President Donald Trump issued a wide-ranging executive order to guard against what he calls “surgical and chemical mutilation” of children—procedures that advocates refer to as “gender-affirming care.”

A wave of clinic closures and increased restrictions followed, buoyed by a mid-2025 Supreme Court ruling that upheld Tennessee’s statewide ban on medical transitions for minors.

And this year, in a landmark verdict, a New York jury awarded a woman $2 million in a gender-transition medical malpractice case; many similar cases are pending.

Within days of the Jan. 30 decision, two major medical organizations—the American Society of Plastic Surgeons and the American Medical Association—recommended delaying transition procedures until adulthood.

Several clinics that ended some gender treatments last month emphasized that mental health services would remain unaffected.

University of Utah Health confirmed that it will “discontinue hormonal transgender treatment for all patients under the age of 18, effective April 15, 2026,” an emailed statement said.

NYU Langone Health released a statement last month in which it cited a hospital leadership change and “the current regulatory environment” as reasons for stopping its Transgender Youth Health Program.

New York state Sen. Kristen Gonzalez said she considers those treatments “essential healthcare” for minors, according to a statement released Feb. 18, following NYU Langone’s closure decision.

Gonzalez headed a group of more than 70 New York state lawmakers who signed a letter two days later urging the hospital to reverse its decision.

The New York Attorney General’s office on Feb. 25 ordered NYU Langone to resume gender services within 14 days.

Similar suspensions occurred in Colorado, Massachusetts, and Minnesota.  

The Epoch Times was unable to independently verify reports that additional clinics had also restricted or ended youth gender transition programs earlier this year.

Battle Far From Over

Despite these increasing restrictions, the medicalized gender-transitioning of minors is not screeching to a standstill in America.

Dr. Eithan Haim, a general surgeon who nearly went to prison for exposing youth gender-transitioning at a Texas hospital, doubts the clinics are genuinely backing away from gender ideology.

He believes their public announcements are intended to appease federal officials enough to keep federal dollars flowing. Without that money, most hospitals would be “insolvent,” he said.

“These hospitals aren’t, you know, having a ‘come-to-Jesus’ moment—that they realize this thing is wrong,” he said.

Scott Newgent, a female who regrets undergoing masculinizing procedures as an adult, says attacking that issue is like playing “Whac-A-Mole” when one problem is beaten down, another pops up.

Newgent and Haim say factors seem to be lining up to discourage gender-transitioning of minors. But the two crusaders suspect that advocates of gender transitioning will find ways to keep the procedures going, regardless of how the current battles turn out.

Proponents of so-called gender-affirming ideology counter that treatments such as puberty blockers, hormones, and surgeries are “essential,” “medically necessary,” and even “life-saving.”

The Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund has accused federal officials of advancing “a cruel and unlawful anti-trans agenda” by seeking to restrict or eliminate the procedures for minors.

And in a Facebook post last month, Human Rights Campaign said: “Gender-affirming care saves lives. The Trump administration is attacking medically necessary care for trans and non-binary youth, recklessly putting their lives in danger.”

Advocates make such claims based on assertions that transgender youth may commit suicide if they are denied the treatments.

Haim said unscrupulous providers could use fraudulent diagnosis codes to get insurers to cover procedures that otherwise would be excluded from coverage.

The fight over transgender medicine reform is fierce, he said, with opponents “throwing up roadblocks” at every step.

Still, Haim said he is optimistic that permanent changes in youth treatment can take hold.

At the same time, he cautioned, “The only reason things are changing now is because of pressure from the Trump administration. 

If that changes in 2028 with the new administration, everything is going to go back to what it was.”

Janice Hisle; Savannah Hulsey-Pointer; Stacy Robinson

BOOKMARKS

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Saudi Arabia warned Iran on Monday that it would be “the greatest loser” if it continues attacks in the region. “The kingdom affirms that it retains its full right to take all necessary measures to safeguard its security, sovereignty, and the safety of its citizens and residents, and to deter aggression,” the Saudi Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on X.

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The FBI has acquired 2020 Arizona election records as part of a larger grand jury investigation. The Justice Department is also suing at least 29 people over their voter records. 

Trump doubled down on Monday on his demands for the Senate to pass a bill requiring proof of citizenship to vote, along with provisions that exclude men from playing women’s sports. The president said over the weekend that he wouldn’t sign any more bills until that legislation, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) America Act, passed. 

—Stacy Robinson