Edited by: TJVNews.com

In a sweeping and unprecedented move, the Trump administration has begun laying the groundwork to potentially cut off federal funding to hospitals that administer gender-transition procedures to minors—marking a significant escalation in the federal government’s oversight of what critics have called “experimental and irreversible treatments” for vulnerable youth.

According to a report that appeared on Monday in The Wall Street Journal, the Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent letters to nine prominent children’s hospitals demanding data on the number of sex-reassignment surgeries, hormone therapies, and puberty blockers administered to individuals under 18. The letters—signed by CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz, the former heart surgeon and television personality—came with an unmistakable warning: non-compliance or continuation of these procedures could lead to hospitals being expelled from Medicaid and Marketplace plans.

Among the institutions under scrutiny is NYU-Langone Hospital in New York City, which has emerged as one of the nation’s most aggressive promoters of transgender-related surgeries for minors. Though not listed among the initial nine hospitals targeted by CMS, NYU-Langone’s expanding program for adolescent gender transitions has come under increasing criticism from both medical professionals and parental advocacy groups for what many see as a deeply troubling embrace of politicized medicine.

As The Wall Street Journal and other media outlets have reported, NYU-Langone has become a flagship institution for pediatric gender-related care, offering a wide array of services that include puberty suppression, cross-sex hormone therapy, and in select cases, irreversible surgeries such as double mastectomies and genital reconstruction. While the hospital insists that its practices are “evidence-based” and “affirming,” critics argue that its standards fall far short of rigorous long-term research and often prioritize ideology over child welfare.

Internal documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal show that NYU-Langone’s child gender clinic actively encourages early intervention, sometimes recommending medical steps before a child reaches high school age. In promotional materials aimed at parents, the hospital uses terms such as “gender euphoria” and “body congruence” to support procedures that result in permanent sterilization or lifelong dependency on synthetic hormones.

Physicians familiar with NYU-Langone’s practices, speaking under condition of anonymity, told The Wall Street Journal that medical staff have raised internal concerns about the pressure to conform to affirming protocols, even in cases where underlying mental health conditions or parental coercion may play a role in a child’s desire to transition.

“This is not care—it’s ideology cloaked in the language of medicine,” said one senior clinician. “When you’re removing healthy tissue from a 15-year-old girl because she says she doesn’t feel right in her body, you’re crossing a line that should make every medical ethicist lose sleep.”

The decision by CMS and Dr. Oz to initiate formal inquiries into gender-related medical practices marks a decisive turn in federal policy. While states have passed various restrictions on youth gender transitions, this is the first significant attempt to leverage federal regulatory and funding mechanisms to curtail such procedures nationwide.

“President Trump has been clear: America will protect kids from life-altering and experimental procedures,” Oz said in a statement provided to The Wall Street Journal. “CMS has warned hospitals and state Medicaid programs about these dangers—and is taking regulatory enforcement actions.”

According to CMS officials cited by the Journal, the agency is actively reviewing its legal authority to withdraw funding from any institution that continues to provide gender-affirming treatments to minors. While the letters did not initially threaten specific punitive actions, officials made it clear that Medicaid eligibility—the financial lifeline for many children’s hospitals—may be revoked for noncompliance.

The political and financial stakes are enormous. As The Wall Street Journal reported, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, which draws more than 65% of its revenue from federal sources, announced it would shutter its gender program, explicitly citing the CMS probe. Other hospitals, such as UPMC in Pittsburgh and Colorado Children’s, have either scaled back their programs or clarified that they do not perform such surgeries on minors.

In a letter to staff, CHLA leadership said plainly: “The hospital has been left with no viable path forward.”

The crackdown comes amid a broader cultural and legal backlash against gender-transition procedures for minors. Public opinion has grown increasingly skeptical, particularly around issues of informed consent, long-term outcomes, and the rapid normalization of surgeries that leave permanent scars.

A recent ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a state’s right to restrict such treatments for minors, and Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed the Department of Justice to investigate hospitals and doctors who misrepresent the consequences of these treatments to families.

As The Wall Street Journal report noted, the administration’s actions are not occurring in a vacuum. The executive order issued in January referred to the procedures as “surgical mutilation,” reflecting a moral line in the sand that the federal government is increasingly unwilling to cross.

While many hospitals have responded with defiance or denial, NYU-Langone has remained largely silent about the current federal probe. However, given its position at the forefront of pediatric gender medicine, experts believe it is only a matter of time before it finds itself under direct regulatory scrutiny.

If that happens, the consequences could be profound—not only for NYU-Langone’s financial structure but also for the broader credibility of medical institutions that have adopted unproven or ideologically driven approaches to complex issues of gender identity in children.

“America’s medical system must answer to science, not to political trends,” said Dr. Michael Eshel, a pediatric endocrinologist formerly affiliated with a major New York hospital. “And the science on child gender transitions is, at best, deeply unsettled and at worst, dangerously politicized.”

As reported by The Wall Street Journal, CMS has set a regulatory tone that could reverberate for years. The central message is clear: if hospitals wish to receive federal funding, they must be accountable not just to ideological narratives, but to the laws and ethical standards designed to protect minors from irreversible harm.

For NYU-Langone and others that have doubled down on the promotion of adolescent gender transitions, the window to course-correct or face consequences may now be rapidly closing.

In the words of CMS Administrator Oz: “The time for tolerance of this reckless medical experimentation is over. America’s children deserve better—and we intend to ensure they get it.”