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UVA, VCU bullied by Miyares into ending gender-affirming care for trans teens

Chris Graham
transgender
(© Pixel-Shot – stock.adobe.com)

The suits at UVA Health and VCU Health are cowering in the face of a questionable directive from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares to stop providing gender-affirming healthcare to trans minors.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported Friday that Miyares sent letters to the two university health systems directing them to stop offering medical care for minors in the midst of gender transition, which the paper said would comply with an executive order issued earlier this week by Donald Trump.

Problem there being: the executive order, as written, is in violation of current federal law, and absent an act of Congress overriding the existing federal law, and the Department of Health and Human Services initiating the lengthy regulatory and administrative procedures process in accord with a new law on the books, the words from that executive order have no more real-world value than the small slice of cyberspace on the White House website they’re printed on.

The same can be said, then, for the directive from Miyares, which, predictably, is grotesque in its phrasing, particularly in relation to the scale of the issue – fewer than 1 in 1,000 U.S. adolescents with commercial insurance received puberty blockers or hormones during a recent five-year period, according to a recent study.

The letter from the AG, according to the T-D, directs UVA Health and VCU Health to end what it terms the “chemical and surgical mutilation of children,” and goes on to assert that “(h)ospitals and institutions that continue to mutilate children place themselves at significant legal risk and face substantial financial exposure.”


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donald trump jason miyares
Donald Trump: © Evan El-Amin – shutterstock.com. Jason Miyares: © The Old Major – Shutterstock.

Left out of the letter is the “significant legal risk and face substantial financial exposure” that the hospital systems will face by complying with the directive from the AG’s office.

“We fought previous attempts by the first Trump administration to restrict healthcare, and we won. We stand ready to fight back against this even more pernicious effort to deny medically necessary health care to our youth,” said Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, senior counsel and healthcare strategist for Lambda Legal, a New York City-based civil-rights group that focuses on LGBTQ+ issues.

The Trump order, issued under the Orwellian name Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” directs that federally-run insurance programs exclude coverage for gender-affirming care for trans minors, and calls on the Department of Justice to pursue litigation and for Congress to pass legislation to outlaw the care.

The order also targets hospitals and universities that receive federal money and provide the care, which is where the suits at UVA Health and VCU Health come back to our story.


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mental health
(© Stefanos Kyriazis – stock.adobe.com)

The T-D reported that UVA Health said on Friday that it has “suspended all gender-affirming care for patients under 19 years of age” pursuant to the executive order and guidance from Miyares, with a mealy-mouthed addendum that it is “working to analyze and interpret the federal order and related state guidance, as well as monitoring other potential policy changes and impacts to ensure we are always delivering care in accordance with the law.”

VCU told the paper in a statement on Thursday that “VCU Health and Children’s Hospital of Richmond at VCU have suspended gender-affirming medication and gender-affirming surgical procedures for those under 19 years old in response to clear guidance from the state provided to VCU.”

“We are committed to ensuring that we’re always delivering care in accordance with the law. Appointments will be maintained to discuss specific care options for patients in compliance with the most recent guidance,” the school said.

Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham, the king of "fringe media," a zero-time Virginia Sportswriter of the Year, and a member of zero Halls of Fame, is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, or subscribe to his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].