Minnesota’s largest pediatric system restarts gender-affirming care for trans minors

Minnesota’s largest pediatric health system is restoring gender-affirming care for minors after a federal judge blocked a Trump administration effort to label the treatment unsafe, reversing a suspension that had disrupted care for families across the state.

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Children’s Minnesota said it resumed services this week after pausing some forms of gender-affirming care in February, after Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued guidance declaring such care for minors outside accepted medical standards. The hospital system had suspended services on February 27 and restored them on April 6, according to Minnesota Public Radio.

“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 hospital network said in a statement to MPR.

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The reversal follows a ruling by U.S. District Judge Mustafa Kasubhai, who said he would vacate Kennedy’s directive after Democratic attorneys general from multiple states challenged it in court. The judge found the administration had overstepped its authority in attempting to restrict care that remains legal under state law in Minnesota and elsewhere.

The Trump administration’s push against pediatric gender-affirming care escalated earlier this year when President Donald Trump signed an executive order seeking to cut federal funding to hospitals and institutions that provide such care to minors. That order triggered alarm among transgender youth advocates and medical providers nationwide, who warned it could force hospitals to scale back services even in states where the care is protected.

In Minnesota, that chilling effect was immediate. Children’s Minnesota’s monthlong suspension left families scrambling after one of the state’s most prominent pediatric providers abruptly halted treatment. The hospital system said it has contacted all families previously served through its Gender Health program to notify them that care is resuming.

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While more than half the states in the country now place restrictions on medical providers delivering gender-affirming care, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order in 2023 urging officials to protect access to such services. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison was among the Democratic officials suing the administration’s anti-trans directives.

"Gender-affirming care is health care, and health care decisions should be left up to doctors, their patients, and if the patient is younger, their parents or guardians,” Ellison said after the ruling, defending providers.

Ellison said the federal government has no role in overriding medical standards set by doctors, states, and professional associations, calling the Trump administration’s intervention an unlawful intrusion into private medical decisions.

"The federal government should not be part of that equation, and there’s no room in Minnesota doctors’ offices for Donald Trump, RFK Jr., and other politicians who want to dictate what health care we can and cannot receive," he said.