Children's Minnesota hospital brings back child sex changes despite Trump ban

A children's hospital in Minnesota will be resuming all sex change procedures for children who believe they are of the opposite sex after the programs came to a halt on February 27. The decision follows the publishing of a massive Finnish study that showed psychiatric problems for trans-identified youth did not subside after they got sex change procedures.

The decision to reverse the pause came as a result of a federal court ruling in March that overturned an attempt to stop sex change procedures for minors, including puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. Children's Minnesota said in a statement, “Offering science- and research-based health care to transgender and gender diverse youth is part of Children’s Minnesota’s vision of being every family’s essential partner in raising healthier children."

The ruling came from a lawsuit filed by Minnesota, as well as other states, to block the Trump administration from stopping such procedures. 

In February, when the hospital had paused the program, it was a reaction to federal action taken by the Trump administration to prevent minors from being subject to taking puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. The hospital at the time said that they did not want to pause the program, but felt that they had to, per MPR News.

In recent years, 27 states have taken action to protect children from the different sex change procedures, however, in 2023, Minnesota passed a law that sought to protect accessibility to the procedures for minors.

Last year, the Trump administration had ordered that Medicaid and Medicare support would be cut from hospitals that engaged with child sex change procedures and the proposal would have stopped the hospital from being able to offer the program. However, a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order against the attempt from the Trump administration.