An executive order signed by President Donald Trump last month has put an end to sex changes for minors at Michigan’s Corewell Health.
“At this time, we are not beginning any new hormone therapy regimens for minor patents seeking gender affirming care,” Corewell Health said in a statement cited by The Detroit News. “We do not perform gender-affirming surgeries on minors. Our team will continue monitoring federal changes to rules and regulations. We remain committed to providing the highest quality health care to all the patients we serve.”
A spokesman confirmed to MLive that Corewell Health will continue to provide treatments to minors already receiving hormone therapy, which will also remain available for other conditions like fibromyalgia and endometriosis.
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Corewell Health, created through a 2022 merger of Beaumont Health and Spectrum Health, is the largest health system in Michigan with over 60,000 employees across 22 hospitals.
Trump on Jan. 28 issued an executive order titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” that promises to end federal aid to medical institutions that engage in “gender affirming care” for minors.
“The head of each executive department or agency (agency) that provides research or education grants to medical institutions, including medical schools and hospitals, shall, consistent with applicable law and in coordination with the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, immediately take appropriate steps to ensure that institutions receiving Federal research or education grants end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children,” the EO reads.
“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” according to the order. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”
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The executive order is among others that aim to reverse transgender-friendly policies promoted by President Joe Biden and other Democrats.
Trump signed a separate Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports executive order last week that states it’s “the policy of the United States to rescind all funds from educational programs that deprive women and girls of fair athletic opportunities, which results in endangerment, humiliation, and silencing of women and girls and deprives them of privacy.
“It shall also be the policy of the United States to oppose male competitive participation in women’s sports more broadly, as a matter of safety, fairness, dignity, and truth,” it reads.
In his inaugural address, the 47th POTUS declared “it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female,” to a roaring applause.
While Corewell Health seems to get the message, how Michigan’s other health systems plan to respond is less clear.
Mary Masson, spokeswoman for University of Michigan Health, which hosts a program that offers gender-affirming care to minors, told WZZM it will “continue to prioritize high-quality, accessible care while ensuring compliance with the law.”
“Our team believes that identifying with a gender that is different from one’s sex is a normal part of the human experience, and that people with all gender identities, including agender, non-binary and gender queer identities, deserve equal access to the highest quality care,” according to a UM Health website.
McLaren Health told MLive its hospitals in Michigan did not offer gender-affirming services, while other health systems didn’t bother to reply to inquires or declined to comment.
Transgender activists, of course, are pushing back on Trump’s executive orders, both in the media and the courts.
“Parents and families should be free to make medical decisions informed by their doctors and the available science without the interference of politics,” a spokesperson with the American Academy of Pediatrics told The Associated Press.
On Tuesday, seven families of transgender children filed a federal lawsuit over Trump’s executive order in Baltimore, with support from transgender activists at PFLAG and GLMA, and legal representation from the ACLU and Lambda Legal.
At least 26 states have already approved laws that restrict or ban gender affirming care for minors, according to the AP.