In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.The imposition of gender ideology on children has faced global setbacks, as many countries have rolled back transgender procedures for children. Things have been moving more slowly in the United States, where Democrats have fought to ensure that children continue being sent down the path of permanent gender transition.There have been many temporary victories here at home, however, setting the stage for the eventual destruction of the movement.
JUDICIAL TURF WAR IGNITES OVER DOJ INVESTIGATIONS INTO TRANSGENDER DRUGS AND SURGERIES FOR CHILDRENHospitals shifting away from transgender ‘medicine’ for children
In August 2025, Jo Yurcaba, “an award-winning journalist covering the LGBTQ community” for the LGBT identity section of NBC News, reported that “at least 21 hospitals have ended or restricted trans care for minors since January.” President Donald Trump’s inauguration put the fear of the federal government into these hospitals, with 12 no longer giving puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones to transgender minors, and four no longer offering forms of sex-change surgeries.The number of hospitals ceasing their “gender-affirming care” for minors has continued to rise in the year since NBC’s report. Earlier this month, the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio reached a settlement with the Justice Department that would see the clinic’s transgender services for children shut down for the next 20 years, with the clinic paying $308,000 to “settle insurance billing allegations” and setting aside $2 million for detransitioning services.This is not a phenomenon that has been limited to Republican-run states such as Ohio. Hospitals in California, New York, Illinois, and Massachusetts have, at least temporarily, shut down these children-focused transgender units. In April, NPR wrote about a 14-year-old girl whose family fled from Texas to Massachusetts to ensure that they could pump her full of testosterone and permanently and irreversibly alter her body because she claimed to be a boy at age 12 — and claimed to be “nonbinary” prior to that. The crux of the story was that Baystate Health, “the largest hospital system in the region,” had shut down its transgender procedures for children in February, just two weeks before this girl was to receive her first dose of testosterone.The reason for this is simple: While blue states fight Trump’s policies on transgender disfigurement of children, the Trump administration still has its hands on the purse strings. As Baystate told NPR, “Nearly 70 percent of Baystate Health’s patients rely on Medicaid and Medicare for coverage,” and the hospital system could lose “hundreds of millions of dollars in government reimbursement” under Trump’s proposed policies. While Democrats continue to fight those policies in court, some hospitals have decided to get out of the fight early, so as to be safe now rather than sorry later.Even New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, one of the most left-wing figures running a U.S. city, has offered a temporary surrender. Mamdani is planning to open a taxpayer-funded, government-run transgender clinic in the Big Apple, but even he is currently unwilling to have that clinic provide transgender services to minors.Detransitioner lawsuits
