CHICAGO (LifeSiteNews) — The Ann and Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, the largest children’s hospital in the city, announced last week that it would stop providing prescriptions for gender-mutilating drugs to minors in response to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) referring them and other hospitals for investigation.
In a January 20 statement shared with local media, the Lurie Children’s Hospital announced it would temporarily pause handing out prescriptions for so-called “gender-affirming” drugs such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to children under 18 that the hospital had not previously treated. The children’s hospital stressed that the decision came in response to HHS’ January 15 announcement that the Chicago hospital, as well as several other prominent children’s hospitals, had been referred to the department’s Office of the Inspector General (HHS-OIG) for investigation for failing to comply with the department’s official guidance emphasizing the danger of these “sex-rejecting drugs.”
BREAKING: Lurie Children’s Hospital in Illinois (@LurieChildrens) is ENDING m*tilation and chemical castration procedures for children after pressure from the Trump administration.
THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I VOTED FOR pic.twitter.com/lH0ibPI7qC
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) January 22, 2026
“As we await Federal court rulings and assess the rapidly evolving legal landscape, at this time, Lurie Children’s will not initiate gender-affirming medications for patients under age 18 who have not previously been treated with these therapies by our team,” hospital spokesperson Julianne Bardele wrote in a statement.
“Actions by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, including their announcement on January 15th of a referral for an investigation of Lurie Children’s, have resulted in this decision,” she added. “This threatens our ability to care for all of our patients. We remain committed to our patients and families and their ability to access expert medical care.”
It’s worth noting that minors who are already patients of Lurie Children’s Hospital will continue to be prescribed gender-mutilating drugs.
Just five days before the announcement, HHS General Counsel Mike Stuart referred Lurie Hospital to the department’s Office of Inspector General for an investigation into its failure to comply with HHS’ guidance against what it refers to as “sex-rejecting” procedures.
Other hospitals referred to IG’s office include Nemours Alfred I. DuPont Hospital for Children in Wilmington, Delaware; The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP); Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland, Oregon; Boston Children’s Hospital; and New York University Langone Health.
“It is truly unfortunate that today I referred to (OIGATHHS) for full investigation SIX more hospitals from SIX different states for allegedly failing to protect our children from sex-rejecting procedures- procedures that cause permanent, terrible harm,” Stuart wrote. “These hospitals appear to continue to operate outside recognized standards of healthcare and entirely outside (Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s) declaration that sex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective.”
SIX hospitals located in SIX different states…
It is truly unfortunate that today I referred to @OIGATHHS for full investigation SIX more hospitals from SIX different states for allegedly failing to protect our children from sex-rejecting procedures- procedures that cause…
— HHS General Counsel Mike Stuart (@HHSGCMikeStuart) January 15, 2026
The declaration Stuart cited, which Kennedy signed in December, declared that “sex-rejecting procedures are neither safe nor effective treatment for children with gender dysphoria,” based upon a peer-reviewed study of gender dysphoria. He called it a “clear directive to providers to follow the science and the overwhelming body of evidence that these procedures hurt, not help, children.”
“Doctors assume a solemn obligation to protect children. Yet doctors across the country provide needless and irreversible sex rejecting procedures that violate their sacred Hippocratic oath, violating the very lives they are sworn to safeguard,” Kennedy said at the time.
“So-called ‘gender affirming care’ has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people. This is not medicine. It is malpractice,” he continued. “We’re done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the well-being of children.”
The same day Kennedy signed the declaration, the HHS proposed a rule that would ban hospitals that receive Medicare and Medicaid funding from performing “sex-rejecting” surgery. They also moved to remove gender dysphoria from a “disability” classification, so that policies restricting “sex-rejecting procedures do not violate disability non-discrimination requirements.”
READ: Trump’s HHS moves to crack down on transgender mutilation of children
As reported extensively by LifeSiteNews, many oft-ignored detransitioners, individuals who attempted transitioning before regretting it and returning to life as their true sex, attest to the physical and mental harm of reinforcing gender confusion, as well as to the bias and negligence of the medical establishment on the subject, many of whom take an activist approach to their profession and begin cases with a predetermined conclusion that “transitioning” is the best solution.
This is the second time within the past year that Lurie’s Children’s Hospital has paused its “gender-affirming” practices as a result of the Trump administration’s actions.
Last February, the hospital paused its “gender-transition” surgeries for children after Trump signed an executive order that called for an end to “transition” surgeries and chemical interventions, and threatened hospitals and medical institutions that continue to offer such surgeries would be cut off from all federal funding.
READ: Chicago’s largest children’s hospital pauses ‘gender transitions’ for minors
