WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice is warning New York Attorney General Letitia James that it “will take all necessary actions to defend” one of the largest hospitals in the Big Apple if she punishes NYU Langone for failing to provide transgender treatments to minors.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in a Thursday letter to James declared that the DOJ “will not sit idly by while you attempt to use your office to force harmful procedures on our most vulnerable population” —if legal action is taken against NYU Langone.
On Feb. 25, the Empire State AG had threatened “further action” after the hospital ended its Transgender Youth Health Program, telling the hospital it was “jeopardizing access to medically necessary healthcare.” The hospital had stopped sex-reassignment surgeries, puberty blockers and hormone treatments for minors with gender dysphoria.
The hospital “permanently” axed the program earlier that month after the Trump administration said it would pull all federal funding if it continued prescribing puberty blockers and supplying hormones to children.
Dr. Ira Savetsky, a plastic surgeon who trained at NYU Langone, told “Fox & Friends” in February that he was grateful to President Trump for “having more clarity” on the issue of transgender treatments.
“As a father to three young children and as a physician who took an oath to do no harm, I failed to speak up,” he said.
It’s unclear whether James is still charging forward with legal action, but she has already blown through her self-imposed March 11 deadline for NYU Langone to reinstate the transgender treatments for minors.
The New York attorney general had previously claimed the hospital’s decision to voluntarily end the transgender treatment program violated New York’s anti-discrimination laws.
“NYU Langone’s change in policy is self-imposed; there has been no change in federal law to require the cessation of medically necessary transgender healthcare,” the late February letter from the state AG’s office noted.
Blanche in his letter to James wrote that “the Justice Department believes the law is clear, and anti-discrimination laws cannot be used to force NYU Langone to perform sex-rejecting procedures on children.”
“As just one example, your office’s position would require a hospital to prescribe certain medications for certain diagnoses, regardless of the hospital’s or its doctors’ independent medical determination about the propriety of such treatment,” he said.
The deputy AG also noted that the hospital’s “exercise of its sound discretion to no provide such services and procedures” didn’t constitute discrimination on the basis of sex, gender identity or disability, citing Supreme Court precedent on the issue.
“NYU Langone will not provide any minor—regardless of that minor’s perceived gender identity—with puberty blockers or hormonal interventions to treat gender dysphoria,” he continued. “But NYU Langone will provide any child—regardless of that minor’s perceived gender identity—with puberty blockers or hormonal interventions to treat other diagnoses.”
Blanche added, “NYU Langone does not turn away patients with gender dysphoria. As it plainly states on its website, NYU Langone ‘provide[s] psychological counseling for the entire family’ for gender dysphoric adolescents.”
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, in a March 10 letter had declared to James: “Our children are not guinea pigs.”
“Given that emerging medical evidence continues to demonstrate the harm these procedures inflict on children, it is both irresponsible and false to declare the other side of this ongoing scientific debate definitively ‘medically necessary,’” Oz wrote.
“It is worse still to compel doctors to perform procedures that remain the subject of substantial dispute. It is also unethical. Your claim that discontinuing these interventions constitutes unlawful discrimination is irresponsible,” he added.
“As a doctor, I am appalled that your office would attempt to force a hospital to perform potentially life-altering medical procedures on children that are not solidly grounded in science to make a political point.”
The CMS administrator’s letter also cited the potential risks and irreversible damaging effects on children who go through sex-reassignment surgeries and other transgender procedures.
Reps for James’ office did not respond to a request for comment.
