Tacoma children's hospital shuts down gender clinic for new patients

MultiCare’s Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital, the only provider of so-called “gender-affirming health care” for minors in Pierce County, Washington, will stop accepting new patients for medical interventions starting Sept. 12. The hospital has also ended its waitlist and will no longer issue new prescriptions for puberty blockers or hormone therapy.

The change affects the Mary Bridge Gender Care Clinic, which has provided the controversial procedures since 2015. The clinic does not perform surgeries but has offered puberty blockers and hormone therapy.

MultiCare said in an Aug. 4 statement to the News Tribune that it would no longer keep a waitlist “as we assess the changing federal expectations around our provision of medical interventions to minors as a treatment for gender dysphoria.” Current patients already prescribed medications will continue receiving them, but no new patients, or existing patients not currently on treatment, will be started on prescriptions after Sept. 12.

Hospital communications manager Kalyn Kinomoto told the outlet, “Mary Bridge remains deeply committed to our gender-diverse patients. While the wait list for medical interventions is no longer available, we will continue to provide new patients with behavioral health care, which includes mental health assessments, counseling, and support services.”

The hospital also removed much of its online information about the controversial procedures. Officials did not provide the number of patients treated at the clinic or the number on its waiting list.

Seattle Children’s Hospital, north of Tacoma, continues to provide hormone therapy and mental health services but no longer performs gender-altering surgeries on patients under 19.

More than half of the states in the US have enacted limits on the controversial procedures. In January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order to “prohibit or limit” access to such procedures. In April, Attorney General Pam Bondi warned physicians they could face felony charges for providing certain types of care to minors.