Another Hospital Backs Down: Connecticut Stops Transgender Procedures on Children After Federal Pressure

Connecticut Children’s Medical Center has become the third U.S. hospital to end gender transition services for children following pressure from the Department of Justice. The hospital also pledged $500,000 in medical care for those harmed by the procedures, The Daily Wire reported Wednesday.

Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward made the stakes clear: “The Department of Justice will stop at nothing to protect America’s children. This resolution is a reminder to hospitals, medical providers, and pharmaceutical companies that the Justice Department will vigorously enforce federal law, especially where the lives of children are endangered.”

The development follows President Trump’s 2025 executive order blocking federal funding for puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgical procedures for minors. Texas Children’s Hospital and the Cleveland Clinic Foundation have also stopped performing transgender procedures on children. Both agreed to open clinics offering services and support to detransitioners.

Brett Shumate, assistant attorney general for the DOJ’s Civil Division, said after Cleveland Clinic’s decision, “Our work is far from over, and our division will continue to work tirelessly to protect America’s children and hold accountable those that have preyed on vulnerable children, whether they be pharmaceutical companies or medical providers.”

Connecticut Children’s remained “cooperative, proactive, and solution-driven” while forming the agreement, according to a DOJ press release.

But Walt Heyer, a senior fellow at Family Research Council who identified as a transgender woman for eight years before detransitioning and committing his life to Christ, issued a sobering warning. “Children’s gender clinics only represent 7.7 percent of gender affirming care,” he told The Washington Stand. “There is the potential for hospitals to pivot away from the 7.7 percent and expand their gender clinics to perform the harmful gender affirming care on the other 90 percent that are not children, which could be far more lucrative.”

Heyer added, “The children will just wait until they are 19-year-olds and go back to the gender clinic for the same procedures, so it becomes temporary protection only. I will get excited when no gender affirming care is performed anymore by any hospital in the United States. That is what needs to happen to eradicate it.”

New legislation is coming. The Chloe Cole Act, introduced in the House by Rep. Bob Onder, would strengthen legal protections for minors and provide an avenue for families to pursue justice. Chloe Cole, a 22-year-old detransitioner and born-again Christian who underwent a double mastectomy at age 15, said, “Too many children remain at risk of irreversible harm from puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures pushed on them before they can fully understand the consequences. We must finish what we’ve started and safeguard the next generation from these experimental and barbaric treatments.”

While three hospitals have now stopped performing these procedures and the DOJ continues holding medical institutions accountable, Heyer’s warning remains sobering: temporary protection isn’t enough, and the fight to eradicate gender-affirming care entirely is far from over.

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