The University of Michigan is the latest major healthcare provider to announce it will no longer offer gender-affirming care for minors, citing mounting pressure from the Trump administration.
The decision comes after the university received a subpoena from the Department of Justice, according to a statement released Monday:
“The University of Michigan, including Michigan Medicine, is one of multiple institutions across the country that has received a federal subpoena as part of a criminal and civil investigation into gender-affirming care for minors. In light of that investigation, and given escalating external threats and risks, we will no longer provide gender affirming hormonal therapies and puberty blocker medications for minors.”
The decision was swiftly criticized as harmful to patients by groups representing the state’s LGBTQ+ community. The University of Michigan “has chosen to retreat,” said Erin Knott, executive director of Equality Michigan, in a statement. “This sends a chilling and damaging message to the very young people who most need affirmation, stability, and support.”
The move means the Trump administration has effectively intimidated another major healthcare provider into stopping gender-affirming care for youth, even though the care itself remains legal in Michigan.
“Here you have a federal investigation that's premised on an alleged violation of the law, that's in fact not a violation of the law,” said Samuel Bagenstos, professor at the University of Michigan school of law and former general counsel for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Biden administration.
“To say, ‘Look, we're really afraid of what the Trump administration might do, so we're not even going to go into court to try to fight them and stop them from doing this.’ If I were a parent or a transgender teenager who put my trust in this institution, I would feel like that was a breach of trust.”
Trump administration targets providers of gender-affirming care
While the University didn’t provide specifics about the federal subpoena it received, the Department of Justice announced last month that it had “sent more than 20 subpoenas to doctors and clinics involved in performing transgender medical procedures on children,” as reported by The Washington Post.
Those subpoenas included extensive requests for confidential patient information, according to reporting by the Post and The New York Times.
It’s one of a series of investigations the Trump administration has launched into gender-affirming care providers, including an HHS probe into the University of Michigan over a former employee’s claim that she was denied a religious exemption from providing gender-affirming care.
And the pressure is working: more than 20 healthcare providers in the US have stopped providing gender-affirming care for minors in recent months, according to NBC.
Earlier this month, Michigan’s attorney general, Dana Nessel, a Democrat, joined a multistate lawsuit seeking to block “recent federal actions aimed at deterring providers from offering medically appropriate care to individuals under age 19, even in states like Michigan where such care is legal and protected,” according to a statement.
The suit says that in Michigan, “individuals cannot be denied healthcare services based on, among other classifications, sex or gender identity or expression,” citing the state’s Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act.
“It is profoundly disappointing that [the] University of Michigan made this decision,” said Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan's LGBTQ+ Project.
It’s viewed “certainly by members of the trans community and their families as a capitulation. The University could have chosen to fight this. They could have waited to see what might happen from this legal challenge," Kaplan said.
Several Republican state legislators have recently introduced bills seeking to ban gender-affirming care for minors.
One of the bill's sponsors, Representative Jason Woolford (R-Howell) said the University's decision "is a commendable step in light of the serious concerns facing our children. As a legislator, father, and Christian, I believe it is our duty to protect our children from medical procedures that can profoundly impact their physical and emotional development before they are mature enough to understand the long-term consequences."
Most major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, have issued policies supporting gender-affirming care for youth and opposing state bans on such care.
Where can families go now for care?
Michigan Medicine will “work with each individual patient to wind down care in the coming weeks,” a spokesperson said via email Tuesday.
“We are communicating directly with patients and families who receive gender affirming care as they navigate these changes. We are committed to approaching each patient’s situation with compassion and will work closely with patients and families to provide referrals for mental health and continuity of care. We will continue to see gender-diverse patients in our clinics for all other services, including behavioral health and social work consultations.
The health system offered hormone therapy and puberty blockers for minors, but not gender-affirming surgery.
Families have been reaching out about the decision, said Roz Keith, executive director and founder of Stand with Trans, a Michigan nonprofit serving the trans community.
“Emails, messages, phone calls - it's been pretty much off the hook all day,” Keith said.
When Keith started looking for gender-affirming care for her own son about a decade ago, “this clinic didn’t exist. So the fact that it was started, and has grown, is a big deal. And people from all over the state come to the clinic” at the University of Michigan. “So the news has been really devastating for lots and lots of families.”
The kind of wraparound care patients could receive at the University of Michigan was unique in the state, Keith said.
“You're seeing pediatric endocrinologists with the specialty in transgender medicine,” she said. “And they can see a child who has just come out, they can make an evaluation, they can provide mental health consults. They can walk you through the entire process of a medical transition. They can prescribe puberty blockers, if that's what's necessary in the moment. So they're trained in this particular area of medicine. And even a pediatrician whose practice may be affirming, is not necessarily trained in managing the medical transition of a trans adolescent.”
Stand with Trans is currently compiling a list of medical providers in Michigan who will still provide gender-affirming care, she said. Families can also email info@standwithtrans.org for resources, or go to the organization’s website for hotline information or to access therapy services.
The University of Michigan owns Michigan Public's broadcast license.
