1. United States
2. Mich.
3. Letter

Healthcare decisions belong between a patient and their doctor — not between a patient and a federal enforcement campaign. Right now, the Trump administration is using funding cuts, DOJ settlements, subpoenas, and medical record demands to push hospitals out of providing gender-affirming care. Fenway Health, Baystate Health, and Outer Cape Health Services have already pulled back from treating patients under 18 in Massachusetts — a state where this care remains fully legal. The legal right to treatment means nothing when the provider is gone. This is not a debate about policy abstractions. Texas Children's Hospital, Cleveland Clinic, and Connecticut Children's have all ended gender-affirming care for minors after federal pressure reached their doors. On August 11, HHS and CMS finalized a rule cutting Medicaid funding for specified gender-affirming procedures for patients under 18, with an October implementation date. Trans youth are losing continuity of care in real time. Stand against this federal overreach and defend the principle that medical decisions stay between patients and their doctors.