Children’s hospital to continue ‘gender-affirming care’ after judge blocks Trump’s executive order
March 7, 2025
A Virginia children’s hospital says it will continue to provide life-altering interventions for gender dysphoric youth after a federal judge blocked a presidential executive order (EO) prohibiting federal funding to establishments that offer surgical and chemical castration of youth.
The Christian Post reports that Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters had initially suspended so-called “gender-affirming care” to minors after President Trump issued an EO calling for withholding of federal funding for institutions providing the procedures to patients under 19.
A memo obtained by a local TV station indicates that the hospital plans to proceed with prescribing cross-sex hormones and consultations with gender dysphoric patients but claims to have never offered sex-change surgeries.
In the memo, the hospital states: “After careful analysis of the January 28 White House Executive Order as well as subsequent temporary restraining orders issued by courts in Maryland and Washington, Children’s Hospital of The King’s Daughters shares the following update regarding the availability of gender-affirming care.”
Executive Order 14187 was paused after U.S. District Judge Lauren King of the Western District of Washington at Seattle granted a temporary injunction against two of Trump’s executive orders on February 28.
According to the Christian Post, King found that the EOs violated “the separation of powers” by assuming Congress’ role to “appropriate federal funds and set conditions on their use.”
A Maryland judge, in a separate lawsuit, also temporarily blocked Trump’s order halting federal funding for “gender-affirming care” for patients under 19 years of age.
Trump’s EO 14187 says, “Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding.”
The order goes on to state, “Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.”
EO 14187 was issued after a number of state and foreign governments have reexamined treatment options to find different ways to treat minors with gender dysphoria.
Photo: top, Credit: Ting Shen/AFP via Getty Images