To the editor: This week, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) decided to pause starting gender-affirming care for patients under 19. The move is in response to a recent presidential executive order, as CHLA seeks to fully grasp its implications.
As specialists in pediatrics, psychiatry, and obstetrics and gynecology, we’re deeply concerned about the potential fallout of halting such essential care.
Research paints a stark picture: Transgender and gender-diverse youth face higher rates of depression and suicide compared to their peers. Gender-affirming care can significantly reduce these preventable tragedies. CHLA has long been a leader in this field, and the decision to pause this critical care seems to send a problematic signal—that children’s health can be swayed by politics rather than guided by the expertise of medical professionals who see their needs daily.
We urge CHLA to champion the needs of their patients and the broader community by reinstating immediate access to this crucial, life-saving care for transgender and gender-diverse youth.
Mahima Iyengar, M.D., Los Angeles
Briah Fischer, M.D., Los Angeles
Andrea Soto López, M.D., Los Angeles
Frances Gill, M.D., Los Angeles
To the editor: As a physician, I’m deeply troubled by CHLA’s choice to stop providing gender-affirming care to patients under 19. This concern is only deepened by reports from The Times pointing to unidentified “hospital officials” as the source of this decision.
Who’s responsible for this choice? Hospital administrators, unlike doctors, aren’t bound by the Hippocratic oath. We need transparency and accountability here. The CEO should publicly clarify and justify this decision. If medical professionals are being hindered from doing their jobs, leadership owes a defense of their actions.
Isn’t leadership the very reason for those high salaries?
I understand worries about potential federal funding cuts, but currently, there’s no formal federal directive in place. It’s concerning that a hypothetical risk is being chosen over the real and present harm faced by patients.
Isabella Sledge, M.D., Los Angeles
