On All Issues Thought of on Tuesday, NPR was in a position to take a while out of their busy schedule crying about cuts to their authorities funding to fret about cuts to a different program simply as undeserving of taxpayer {dollars}: “gender-affirming” mutilation of minors. Affiliated reporter Megan Jamerson of KCRW in Santa Monica reported on the spreading worry as Youngsters’s Hospital Los Angeles introduced it might be slicing its providers for minors.
Jamerson reported:
In January, President Trump signed an government order that threatens to chop funding for hospitals that assist younger folks medically transition. Youngsters’s Hospital Los Angeles acquired vital federal funding and Medi-Cal reimbursements. They (…) stated in a press release they have been uniquely weak to having that funding pulled and noticed, quote, “no viable path ahead to proceed gender-affirming care.”
NPR highlighted the story of Sage Sol Pitchenik, a patient-turned-activist talking out towards the closing. Pitchenik argued that the care supplied was “lifesaving” and allowed her to “thrive in my very own physique.” Jamerson seconded the opinion, making an attempt to discredit criticisms of transgender ideology:
Gender-affirming look after minors usually begins with psychotherapy, typically progresses to puberty blockers or hormones and barely includes surgical procedure. Main medical associations help this commonplace of look after gender dysphoria. However the Trump administration disagrees and says it wants to guard kids from what they are saying are irreversible and dangerous providers.
After all, Jamerson’s evaluation raised some apparent issues. “Hardly ever includes surgical procedure” fully disregarded the truth that, simply because the Trump administration stated, some minority of kids have been nonetheless receiving irreversible, dangerous providers.
And on a deeper degree, there needs to be concern when the broadly accepted remedy to a dysfunction (although WHO refused to name it such) is to affirm that the affected person is in the precise. Gender-affirming psychotherapy was precisely that: gender-affirming. It didn’t deal with, it solely validated.
NPR additionally featured an interview with the mom of one other affected person, who continued to help the fearmongering narrative:
What this administration is making an attempt to do is to erase trans folks. That disturbs me very a lot and worries me, not only for my daughter’s future however actually for everybody’s future.
“Erasing trans folks” is an absurd soar from blocking transgender mutilating surgical procedures for particularly minors, however for some, it might all the time be simpler (and extra politically appropriate) to name this an assault towards trans folks slightly than an actual try to assist them.
The transcript is under. Click on “increase” to learn.
NPR’s All Issues Thought of
July 22, 2025
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:A clinic for trans youth at Youngsters’s Hospital in Los Angeles is likely one of the oldest and largest suppliers of gender-affirming look after minors within the nation, however that ends immediately below stress from the Trump administration. Now some households are struggling to seek out new medical doctors. From member station KCRW, Megan Jamerson experiences.
MEGAN JAMERSON: Sage Sol Pitchenik was scrolling by Substack after they noticed the information – the clinic the place, for a number of years, the 16-year-old acquired gender-affirming care, was shutting down.
SAGE SOL PITCHENIK: And I used to be, like, oh, my God. And it was insane. I began crying.
JAMERSON: In January, President Trump signed an government order that threatens to chop funding for hospitals that assist younger folks medically transition. Youngsters’s Hospital Los Angeles acquired vital federal funding and Medi-Cal reimbursements. They would not give an interview however stated in a press release they have been uniquely weak to having that funding pulled and noticed, quote, “no viable path ahead to proceed gender-affirming care.” Pitchenik, who identifies as trans and nonbinary, says the psychotherapy they acquired at Youngsters’s helped them take care of self-hatred.
SAGE: You recognize, subsequent era of trans youth aren’t going to have the ability to have the useful resource that we did.
JAMERSON: This motivated them to talk publicly concerning the closure.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: You bought this, Sage.
(CHEERING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Take your time.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: You bought this, Sage. Whoo (ph).
JAMERSON: So Pitchenik attended a protest on the hospital on June 26.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SAGE: My identify is Sage.
JAMERSON: They stood on a bench in entrance of a crowd, holding a speech in a single hand and a bullhorn within the different, and demanded the hospital change its determination.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SAGE: I discovered hope. I realized the way to not solely survive but additionally thrive in my very own physique due to the lifesaving well being care supplied to me proper right here by Youngsters’s Hospital Los Angeles.
JAMERSON: Gender-affirming look after minors usually begins with psychotherapy, typically progresses to puberty blockers or hormones and barely includes surgical procedure. Main medical associations help this commonplace of look after gender dysphoria. However the Trump administration disagrees and says it wants to guard kids from what they are saying are irreversible and dangerous providers. The White Home didn’t reply to NPR’s request for remark, however here is White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaking concerning the Youngsters’s Hospital closure at a latest briefing.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
KAROLINE LEAVITT: In different information, following President Trump’s daring government actions, the most important supplier of those barbaric practices will now be closing its doorways.
JAMERSON: NPR contacted a dozen medical doctors that present gender-affirming care on the heart that is closing, in addition to elsewhere in Los Angeles. Just one responded and declined to remark.
Kathie Moehlig runs the San Diego-based nonprofit TransFamily Help Providers and says she thinks that is as a result of some medical doctors are scared they may get prosecuted, which is creating a much bigger drawback in California.
KATHIE MOEHLIG: We have by no means had sufficient suppliers on the subject of trans youth care.
JAMERSON: Moehlig has been calling medical doctors, on the lookout for different look after about 100 of the households affected by the Youngsters’s Hospital closure. Some personal observe medical doctors instructed her they’re planning to cease providing care to minors altogether.
MOEHLIG: And so particularly are households which have minors actually fighting, what does this imply for my kid’s future?
JAMERSON: Mother and father of younger adults are additionally intently watching this case. Laura Collura is the mother of a 19-year-old who’s a affected person at Youngsters’s.
LAURA COLLURA: What this administration is making an attempt to do is to erase trans folks. That disturbs me very a lot and worries me, not only for my daughter’s future however actually for everybody’s future.
JAMERSON: Collura’s daughter had her gender-affirming surgical procedure canceled due to the closure. They’re nonetheless on the lookout for a brand new surgeon.
For NPR Information, I am Megan Jamerson in Los Angeles.
