Virginia Commonwealth University's health system will no longer offer gender affirming care for minors, according to a recent announcement from the school.
And while other Virginia health care providers may move to restrict care in the future, research shows controversial surgical procedures among trans youth are rare.
In a statement last week, VCU’s Children’s Hospital of Richmond said it would stop offering transgender healthcare for minors because of quote “current understanding of federal and state directives.”
The announcement comes as President Donald Trump has targeted Virginia’s colleges for a number of reasons and has threatened a handful of Virginia K-12 school systems for having trans-inclusive policies.
Henrico County Democratic Delegate Rodney Willet is on the Board of VCU Health. He said threats to pull federal funding for the hospital systems forced their hand.
“Things went from bad to worse in terms of the Trump mandate," Willet said. "We have hundreds of thousands of patients in our whole system and there’s no way we could risk losing, literally having to shut down, facilities.”
But Southwest Virginia Republican Delegate Wren Williams welcomed the move.
“I do not think that gender affirming care is something we should be accepting for minors," Williams told Radio IQ. "It’s child abuse.”
Willet noted Virginia Republicans have long run on "parents' rights," and wondered why this personal health issue wasn't part of that debate.
"The Trump administration has turned that entirely upside down," the Willet said. "I can't believe he wants to stand between parents and their family doctors."
Williams, meanwhile, said parents, schools and the LGBTQ community were "indoctrinating" young people and he and the Trump administration knew better.
"We have mental health issues with parents who might not be thinking about their children and the impacts this has on them," Williams said, calling the parents of transgender kids "selfish."
"We should stand in and protect children," he said.
A report from Harvard released last month reviewed health records for 22 million minors and found 151 gender affirming breast reductions. Only 5 were performed on trans kids. The rest were conducted on cisgender male-identifying minors with a condition that causes enlargement of the male breast.
According to their websites, UVA Health Children’s continues to offer trans youth health care services, as does Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters in Norfolk. King’s Daughters says they’ve never provided surgical treatments and UVA’s policy says they only offer referrals for such procedures.
This report, provided by Virginia Public Radio, was made possible with support from the Virginia Education Association.
