Kaiser Permanente will pause gender-affirming surgeries for young patients starting next month, citing political pressure from the Trump administration.
The healthcare provider, which serves more than 12 million people in California and several other states, announced Wednesday that as of Aug. 29, its doctors will stop performing gender-affirming surgeries for patients under 19. The healthcare giant — founded and still headquartered in Oakland — operates 40 hospitals and 612 medical offices in eight states and Washington, D.C.
“As the legal and regulatory environment for gender-affirming care continues to evolve, we must carefully consider the significant risks being created for health systems, clinicians, and patients under the age of 19 seeking this care,” Kaiser said in an email, citing recent “executive orders instructing federal agencies to take actions to curtail access and restrict funding for gender-affirming care.”
“We recognize that this is an extremely challenging and stressful time for our patients seeking care, as well as for our clinicians whose mission is to care for them,” the email said.
Nonsurgical gender-affirming care will continue, according to Kaiser, which said it will “work closely with each patient to support their care journey.”
Kaiser’s announcement comes as other medical centers in California end gender-affirming care. Stanford in June paused gender-affirming surgeries for LGBTQ+ patients under 19. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on Tuesday closed its Center for Transyouth Health and Development.
Medical providers and facilities offering gender-affirming care have faced mounting political pressure under President Donald Trump.
The president has signed executive orders to restrict funding for gender-affirming care, and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has sent letters of inquiry to scrutinize medical facilities offering such treatments. The U.S. Department of Justice has issued subpoenas to doctors and clinicians who provide gender-affirming care to transgender youth, as part of ongoing federal investigations.
Arne Johnson, who has a 13-year-old transgender daughter, called the announcement “heartbreaking.”
Johnson, an advocate at Rainbow Families Action, has been taking his daughter to the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center from his Berkeley home for gender-affirming care. He said the move has diminished his trust in the provider, which has long been seen as a “bastion” for evidence-based treatment.
“It’s a huge betrayal,” he said. “You have more freedom as a girl growing up to get your nose fixed than my girl who wants life-affirming care.”
Now, he is exploring other options for his daughter.
“It’s something to think about, but where are we going to turn?” Johnson said. “Everything is happening so fast.”
The California Nurses Association blasted Kaiser, saying it is caving to political pressure and undermining patient care.
“This is pre-emptively giving in to government overreach in healthcare,” Lady Rainsard, a registered nurse at Kaiser San Francisco, said in a union press release.
The union — an affiliate of National Nurses United — said it has long opposed political restrictions on gender-affirming care, including recent efforts by the federal government and courts to limit access. Nurses argue that such policies erode trust and endanger vulnerable patients.
“They’re taking life-saving services from kids, and they’re celebrating, advertising it,” said Sydney Simpson, a Kaiser nurse and member of the California Nurses Association. “It’s disgusting.”
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) also criticized Kaiser’s decision, arguing it violates California law, but aimed most of his anger at the White House.
“While I understand the terrible situation this fascist regime has created for California health systems, denying care to trans kids is wrong and illegal,” Wiener said in a statement to The Standard. “Trump has declared war on trans people and trans kids and their families in particular. Now is the time to have these kids’ and these families’ backs, not to fold under pressure from the most homophobic and transphobic Administration in modern history — an Administration that won’t stop until LGBTQ people are entirely erased from public life.”
CNA members plans to hold a protest Friday at 4 p.m. outside Kaiser’s medical offices at 2238 Geary Blvd.