Following Atlanta hospital's decision, transgender rights advocates brace for more providers to suspend care for children

Maya T. Prabhu, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Apr 25, 2025

Published in News & Features

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ATLANTA — Advocates for transgender children worried a recent decision by Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta to stop offering gender-affirming care may start a trend among the state’s providers, while advocates on the other side say they hope it does.

Children’s Healthcare is no longer allowing their providers to prescribe treatments to their patients with gender dysphoria, which is the diagnosis for most transgender people. Treatments typically include puberty-blocking medicine and hormone therapies.

Jeff Graham, executive director of LGBTQ+ rights organization Georgia Equality, called the move “shameful.”

“And it shows a complete lack of leadership or compassion for their patients,” he said. “It is a concern that their negligence in this instance will be taken as a sign by other medical providers to begin to withhold care.”

Hospital representatives said the decision was because of “recent federal government activity, including recent executive orders, to maintain full compliance.”

In his first days back in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order threatening to withhold federal research and education grants from medical schools and hospitals that use puberty blockers, hormone therapy or surgery to treat transgender children.

However, a federal judge temporarily blocked enforcement of the executive order last month as the courts consider a legal challenge of the policy.

Cole Muzio, founder and president of the conservative organization Frontline Policy Council, said he hopes more medical facilities follow Children’s Healthcare’s lead and choose to end gender-affirming care treatments on their own.

“I think it’s part of a larger cultural trend, not a policy trend or a health care trend, but a cultural trend recognizing there are two genders, male and female, and you can’t change that,” he said.

In 2023, the Georgia Legislature passed a law banning minors from receiving hormone therapies as treatment for gender dysphoria. It included exceptions allowing minors to begin use of puberty blockers and allowing those already receiving hormone therapy before the law’s July 1, 2023, effective date to continue treatment.

Lawmakers unsuccessfully attempted to pass legislation that would have removed those exceptions this year. The bill can still be considered next year.

State Sen. Ben Watson, a Savannah Republican and physician who sponsored the stalled legislation, said Children’s Healthcare’s decision was “entirely appropriate.”

Bentley Hudgins, the Georgia director of LBGTQ+ rights organization Human Rights Campaign, said they’re preparing to fight Watson’s legislation again next year. Hudgins is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns.

They said the legal back and forth over Trump’s executive orders is making things more difficult for an “already incredibly burdened medical system in a really bad position.”

“It’s really disappointing that health care providers who are just trying to provide best practice care are feeling that they have to make these decisions to protect their entire facilities from Trump’s attacks on incredibly small amounts of people,” Hudgins said.

Children’s Healthcare providers have been sending the parents of transgender patients messages informing them of the facility’s position to stop prescribing medications for their children.

Georgia Republicans have spent the past several years pushing legislation regulating transgender people. This year, the Legislature passed a bill that requires transgender student-athletes to play team sports according to their gender assigned at birth. Lawmakers also approved a bill that bans all gender-affirming care for transgender people in prison.

Both bills are on Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk awaiting his signature. Kemp is scheduled to sign Senate Bill 1 regarding student-athletes on Monday.

“To disrupt care for adolescents and the family members that care about them is truly negligence in my mind,” Graham said.

Children’s Healthcare is the state’s premiere pediatric system, which includes three hospitals, an urgent care center and a host of other medical services. The system operates as a nonprofit with net assets of nearly $3 billion.

Georgia Republicans have spent the past several years pushing legislation that regulates transgender people. This year, the Legislature passed a bill that requires transgender student-athletes to play team sports according to their gender assigned at birth. Lawmakers also approved a bill that bans all gender-affirming care for transgender people in prison.

Both bills are on Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk awaiting his signature.

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