Activists from the group Protect Trans Futures confronted Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell at a recent appearance of GBH’s Boston Public Radio, accusing the AG of not “aggressively [going] after health care organizations that scaled back their gender-affirming care options for minors in the wake of pressure from the Trump administration,” according to a report from Boston.com.
Reports Boston.com:
Last October, Fenway Health announced that it would stop providing hormones and puberty blockers to patients under the age of 19. Soon afterward, Outer Cape Health Services made a similar announcement. Both said they were at risk of losing federal funding if they continued providing the care. Baystate Health followed in February, when it stopped prescribing puberty blockers and gender-affirming hormone medications to patients younger than 18. Medication care for these patients was transferred to a health care organization called Transhealth or other providers, Baystate said at the time.
Campbell’s office is not aware of any other health care organizations that have stopped providing gender-affirming care to young people since Baystate’s announcement in February.
Spokespeople for Fenway and Baystate did not return requests for information about the current state of gender-affirming care for young patients at their facilities.
Outer Cape CEO Damian Archer confirmed that the organization is still not providing medical gender-affirming care to patients under 19. He cited concerns about complying with federal requirements in order to preserve access to other essential healthcare services.
“This is an operational and compliance-related decision. It should not be interpreted as a change in our commitment to providing respectful, compassionate, and inclusive care to all patients. We will continue to monitor legal and regulatory guidance closely and will reassess our services as circumstances evolve,” Archer said in a statement Tuesday.
In May, Campbell sent a legal advisory sent to health care providers. It accuses the Trump administration of “intimidating providers” to “create the impression that such care is illegal or contrary to the standard of care.” The advisory emphasizes that “federal law does not prohibit medical professionals from providing transgender healthcare, including hormones and puberty blockers, to patients under the age of 19.”
The advisory informs health care organizations that any decision to stop providing gender-affirming care to transgender minors may constitute discrimination under state law, potentially making them liable for violating the state’s public accommodations statute.
For people like Teddy Walker, the founder of Protect Trans Futures, Campbell’s advisory and her subsequent actions have left much to be desired. Activists accuse the health care organizations of breaking state law by not restoring their gender-affirming care operations for minors, and say that Campbell needs to step in.
“By allowing clinics like Baystate and Fenway to break the law, the government of Massachusetts is showing the Trump administration that these tactics will be effective to take away health care from whoever they want,” Walker told Boston.com.
The group is circulating an open letter to Campbell, urging her to exert much more pressure on the health care organizations. More than 3,000 people have participated in the letter-writing campaign. Activists want to see public pressure, investigations, and potential litigation from Campbell’s office. They say her legal advisory lacks teeth.