(LifeSiteNews) — One of Michigan largest health care providers announced that it will no longer perform “gender-affirming care” on minors.
Corewell Health, previously Spectrum Health, operates nearly two dozen hospitals in the Wolverine State. In a statement released last week, the groups said it will halt all such services after legal counsel advised that there would be a “serious risk of legal and regulatory action” if they continued.
“Like many health care systems across the country, we made this decision to protect both our health care providers and our patients,” the group said in a statement, per CBS News Detroit. “We will continue to compassionately address the health needs of our patients who are in transition or wish to transition, including providing mental health support.”
Corewell had announced in February that it would cease surgical and chemical “transitioning” of gender-confused minors after President Donald Trump signed executive orders pulling federal funds from hospitals complicit in the practice. The move effectively rescinded or amended all of the Biden administration’s pro-LGBT endorsements of underage “transitioning.”
“We remain committed to providing the highest quality health care to all the patients we serve,” Corewell said at the time, adding it will “continue monitoring federal changes to rules and regulations.”
Corewell faced immense pressure from LGBT groups for stopping the services. The outcry resulted in Corewell doing an about-face and issuing a statement that they would continue with the procedures.
The announcement last week to put an end to the “treatments” that they relaunched in February is not expected to be reversed again given the Trump administration’s doubling down against it as well as the general shift in American cultural attitudes against woke and other LGBT initiatives.
“Gender-affirming” care is a slogan concocted by LGBT activists that generally refers to the administering of puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and sex-change operations for persons who suffer from gender dysphoria. Liberals often claim that to deny such persons the “care” they need is to attack their human rights.
But studies have found that more than 80 percent of children suffering from gender confusion outgrow it on their own by late adolescence, and that “reassignment” procedures fail to resolve their tendency to engage in self-harm and suicide – and even exacerbate it, including by reinforcing their confusion and neglecting the actual root causes of their mental strife.
As previously noted by LifeSite reporter Calvin Freiburger, physicians who carry out “gender-affirming” procedures seem to be motivated not by an authentic care for such persons but rather by financial incentives. “These surgeries make a lot of money,” Dr. Shayne Sebold Taylor of the Vanderbilt University Medical system was caught admitting in 2022.
Michigan pro-LGBT Attorney General Dana Nessel, who is “married” to a woman,” denounced Corewell’s decision, calling it “deeply disappointing.”
“They have chosen to capitulate to the federal administration’s discriminatory campaign against the trans community, despite Corewell not being a target of any federal action in this realm,” Nessel complained in a statement. “Corewell’s shortsighted approach to conform their treatment options and ‘obey in advance’ fails to adequately consider the long-term consequences to the health, safety and well-being of their patients. Michigan law has not changed; gender affirming care remains legal and is approved healthcare by leading healthcare associations.”
Nessel has repeatedly attacked pro-life and pro-family Christian groups since assuming office in 2019. She, along with the state’s pro-abortion Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as well as left-wing Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, have routinely targeted conservatives and religious Michiganians.
One of Nessel’s first orders as attorney general was to strip Christian non-profit groups that refused to place children in the homes of homosexual couples of taxpayer dollars. Multiple religious liberty lawsuits resulted from her draconian decree, which ultimately resulted in a massive settlement and a legal victory for faith-based adoption agencies.
Benson, 47, has since announced her candidacy for governor, running as a Democrat to succeed Whitmer.
