Why Wisconsin’s Top Children’s Hospitals Still Won’t Resume Trans Youth Care
A federal judge blocked funding threats, but hospital leaders say legal uncertainty and new rules keep services on hold.
UW Health American Family Children’s Hospital Thursday, Aug. 28, 2025, in Madison, Wis. Angela Major/WPR
More than 60 advocacy organizations and businesses in Wisconsin are calling on the state’s top children’s hospitals to resume providing gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The letter, organized by LGBTQ+ civil rights group Fair Wisconsin, states that while gender-affirming care is legal in Wisconsin, it is “more and more difficult to access” due to the decisions of UW Health and Children’s Wisconsin.
The state’s two major children’s hospitals halted the services at the start of the year following efforts by the Trump administration to punish health care systems providing transition-related care, including puberty-blocking medications and hormone therapy.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. issued a declaration in December stating gender-affirming procedures were “neither safe nor effective” treatments and threatening to exclude hospitals that provided the services from federal health programs like Medicare and Medicaid.
The agency immediately used the order to open federal investigations into pediatric health systems providing transition-related care, including in Illinois and Minnesota.
But a federal judge in Oregon ruled in April that Kennedy did not have the authority to threaten federal funding with the declaration and barred the agency from enforcing the order against states that filed the legal challenge, including Wisconsin.
Abigail Swetz, executive director of Fair Wisconsin, said the order should empower Wisconsin hospitals to resume services.
“While I would say that the decision to pause care, even originally, was the wrong decision, the legal landscape has changed,” she said. “There are more protections, and it’s time to restart this care.”
The letter sent Thursday is not the only call for the two hospitals to resume care for transgender youth. The Trans & Gender Diverse Elected Officials Delegation, which includes members of local, state and federal governments, sent their own letter to the health care systems on Tuesday, saying members were “deeply disappointed” with the decision to halt care and calling for the hospitals to reverse their decision.
While Kennedy’s declaration is no longer enforceable, a proposed rule that would prohibit hospitals from receiving Medicaid and Medicare dollars if they provide transition-related care to minors is still moving through the federal rule making process.
Children’s Wisconsin declined WPR’s request for an interview. In a statement, hospital leadership said providers “are not currently providing gender-affirming pharmacologic care” due to “ongoing legal and regulatory uncertainty” that affects health care systems across the country.
“We know this issue matters deeply to many in our community, especially the patients and families we serve. Supporting the well-being of every child remains at the center of everything we do,” the statement said.
UW Health also declined WPR’s interview request. In their statement, the hospital stated that the decision to pause medication therapies for youth “was not made lightly” and recognized the impact on patients and their families.
“While we continue to believe this is evidence-based care, threats from those federal actions are not fully resolved,” the statement said. “Therefore, the current risk is too great to resume this care.”
Swetz acknowledged the proposed rule could end up forcing hospitals to again halt gender-affirming care for minors. But she said it was the hospitals’ decisions to respond to Kennedy’s initial declaration that pulled them into the legal back-and-forth.
“I would say, ‘Let’s go forth,’” Swetz said. “Let’s add in some more days (of care), because both of these institutions represent some pretty robust access.”
She said the two health systems provide care for a significant portion of the state’s transgender youth.
Since the federal court order, gender-affirming care has restarted or will restart at pediatric hospitals in other states.
Children’s Minnesota announced on April 6 that it had resumed services under its Gender Health program, after previously pausing the prescription of puberty-suppressing medications and hormones to patients under the age of 18.
On Monday, the Colorado Supreme Court ordered Children’s Hospital Colorado to resume providing gender-affirming care after the families of four transgender girls sued the hospitals for violating the state’s antidiscrimination law.
Children’s Wisconsin, UW Health under pressure to resume care for transgender youth was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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