The University of Michigan may be violating the state’s antidiscrimination laws by ending gender-affirming care for minors, according to a scathing open letter issued by the Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel.
“The announcement from the University of Michigan that they will no longer provide their transgender patients with all of the healthcare options available is shameful, dangerous, and potentially illegal,” Nessel, a Democrat, said in a statement Tuesday.
“This cowardly acquiescence to political pressure from this president and his administration is not what patients have come to expect from an institution that has labeled itself, ‘the leaders and the best,’ and my Department will be considering all of our options if they violate Michigan law.”
The University’s health system announced this week it will no longer provide gender-affirming care to minors, after receiving a federal subpoena from the Trump administration. “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 health system said in a statement.
But a Michigan Medicine spokesperson declined to say whether the health system would continue offering the same types of medical care to cisgender patients. Doing so could violate the state’s civil rights protections, according to Nessel.
“Refusing healthcare services to a class of individuals based on their protected status, such as withholding the availability of services from transgender individuals based on their gender identity or their diagnosis of gender dysphoria, while offering such services to cisgender individuals, may constitute discrimination under Michigan law,” Nessel said.
“I have no information to share regarding the AG’s statements,” said Mary Masson, senior director of public relations for Michigan Medicine, in an email Wednesday.
Legal battles over gender-affirming care continue
Nessel reissued the open letter to providers “to remind you that the availability of federal funding has no bearing on Michiganders' right to seek and receive healthcare services without discrimination,” and of their “obligation to comply with Michigan laws, including those that prohibit discrimination against individuals based on their membership in a protected class,” including sexual orientation and gender identity.
Nessel’s office originally issued similar guidance in February, after the Trump administration issued a series of executive orders intended to block federal funds from healthcare providers who offer gender-affirming care for minors.
At the time, Corewell Health had initially announced it would no longer offer gender-affirming care for new minor patients, a decision it later reversed.
But a spokesperson for Corewell did not respond to questions about whether it will continue to offer such care, and if it would take new gender-affirming care patient referrals from the University of Michigan health system.
“We are aware of the University of Michigan’s decision and we have nothing to share,” a Corewell spokesperson said via email Tuesday.
Earlier this month, Nessel joined a multistate lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration’s efforts to interfere with gender-affirming care for those under the age of 19.
“This case is currently pending before the court,” Nessel said in her open letter this week. “Until the Court reaches a decision, providers should bear in mind that efforts to withhold or deny healthcare services because an individual is transgender would be discriminatory and risks inflicting irreversible harm on that individual.”
Nessel also “strongly” encouraged patients “to consult with legal counsel to understand their rights and obligations under Michigan law,” according to the letter.
“We are heartened to see the Attorney General so clearly affirm that discrimination has no place in Michigan’s healthcare system, and that denying medically necessary care to transgender young people is not only wrong—it may also be unlawful,” Erin Knott, Executive Director of Equality Michigan, said in a statement.
The University of Michigan owns Michigan Public's broadcast license.
