Deal carries no finding of liability, Justice Department says
Connecticut Children’s Medical Center agreed to stop offering gender-affirming care to minors under the agreement announced by the Justice Department Wednesday.
The medical center also agreed to pay an undisclosed monetary penalty and dedicate an additional $500,000 in medical care for individuals the department described as living with harmful consequences of gender-affirming care.
Connecticut Children’s denies the department’s claims. The department said the agreement does not determine that the medical center is liable.
The Justice Department did not identify the statutes involved or specify which federal laws the medical center allegedly violated.
The agreement came after a department investigation into doctors and clinics providing gender-affirming care to minors nationwide. The department said the investigation began at least in July 2025 and included more than 20 subpoenas.
The investigation followed an executive order from President Donald Trump directing the Justice Department to prioritize investigations into alleged fraud, consumer deception and federal drug-law violations involving gender-affirming care.
That order also directed federal agencies to take steps to ensure that medical institutions receiving federal research or education grants end such care for people under 19.
Trump issued another executive order eight days after his first day back in the White House. Titled “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” it directed federal agencies to withhold funds from medical providers that offer gender-affirming medical care, including puberty suppressants and hormones, to anyone under 19.
In December, the Department of Health and Human Services announced proposed rules that would bar hospitals from performing gender-affirming care on minors as a condition of participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs.
Gender-affirming care includes psychological, behavioral and medical interventions. The source report said every major medical association in the United States supports the care, including for minors, and that surgeries for minors are exceedingly rare.
A 2024 Harvard study found that cisgender minors and adults were far more likely to undergo analogous gender-affirming surgeries than their transgender counterparts, according to the report.
The Connecticut Children’s agreement follows similar agreements involving Texas Children’s and Cleveland Clinic. Those institutions also agreed to stop providing gender-affirming care to minors.