Corewell Health has lifted its pause on gender-affirming care for some minor patients, just days after announcing it and hours after a coalition of groups, including The OutCenter in Benton Harbor, denounced it.
On Friday, Corewell said it would no longer offer hormone therapy to new patients who are minors. That prompted The OutCenter and partners to issue an open letter to Corewell Health’s Board of Directors on Tuesday expressing their “unequivocal and wholehearted opposition to Corewell’s recent actions.”
The OutCenter’s Mary Jo Schnell told us she was disappointed to hear about the policy change and started talking with partners about how to respond.
“I thought it was shameful, and so partly I thought, ‘OK, who can I talk to about this and how can we as a statewide network do something about this to hopefully get them to reconsider?’ So I reached out to some contacts that I haven’t quite well, haven’t heard back,” Schnell said.
Schnell said with a new administration in the White House, the transgender community is the first to be targeted for discrimination because they’re the least well-known and understood. She was afraid Corewell’s decision to limit gender-affirming care to minors seeking it would set an example for other systems. She said Corewell “gave up” easily following an executive order from President Donald Trump threatening to cut off federal funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to people under the age of 19.
“So how are they going to respond to an executive order about women’s health care? What about people with HIV? Who’s next?”
Later on Tuesday, Corewell issued a new, updated statement. It says, “We are lifting our pause on new hormone therapies for pediatric patients seeking gender affirming care. Care decisions are best made between physicians and their patients and families.” It went on to say Corewell only “briefly paused beginning these therapies to allow us time to assess the potential impact that recent policy changes might have on our patients and their health. ”
Corewell said reports it had suspended “any gender affirming care for any of our patients” were inaccurate.
Corewell Health’s statement, issued to The Free Press for a story published Friday, is below:
“At this time, we are not beginning any new hormone therapy regimens for minor patients seeking gender affirming care. We do not perform gender-affirming surgeries on minors. Our team will continue monitoring federal changes to rules and regulations. We remain committed to providing the highest quality health care to all the patients we serve.”
Corewell Health’s updated statement, issued to WSJM on Tuesday, is below:
“We are lifting our pause on new hormone therapies for pediatric patients seeking gender affirming care. Care decisions are best made between physicians and their patients and families.
We briefly paused beginning these therapies to allow us time to assess the potential impact that recent policy changes might have on our patients and their health. Contrary to some inaccurate reports, we never suspended any gender affirming care for any of our patients.”
The open letter from The OutCenter and its coalition is below:
