Dr. Mehmet Oz responded to New York Attorney General Letitia James on March 10, defending NYU Langone Medical Center’s move to permanently shut down its Transgender Youth Health Program and insisting that “our children are not guinea pigs.”
In a letter obtained by The New York Post, the head of the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services pushed back against James’ threats of legal steps toward the hospital, accusing her office of trying to compel physicians to carry out “potentially life-altering medical procedures on children that are not solidly grounded in science to make a political point.”
The dispute followed NYU Langone’s Feb. 18 termination of the program after the Trump administration warned it might revoke Medicare and Medicaid dollars from institutions offering gender-affirming care to minors. The program’s medical director left, and the hospital redirected its site visitors to a page labeled “Gender & Sexuality Service,” emphasizing psychotherapy rather than medical treatments.
On Feb. 25, James wrote to the medical system asserting the program’s closure was “jeopardizing access to medically necessary healthcare for some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers.” Her Health Care Bureau Chief, Darsana Srinivasan, demanded that NYU Langone restart the procedures by Wednesday, March 11, or face “further action.”
Oz responded bluntly. The former surgeon and TV host said his office supports NYU’s choice and described ending what he called “sex-rejecting procedures” for minors as “a serious and necessary course correction” intended to halt “surgical and chemical interventions on vulnerable children with potentially irreversible consequences.”
The CMS chief maintained that the science around transgender treatments for minors is unsettled. He argued it is “both irresponsible and false to declare the other side of this ongoing scientific debate definitively ‘medically necessary'” and dismissed James’ assertion that stopping these interventions amounts to unlawful discrimination as “irresponsible.”
The clash underscores widening tensions between the Trump administration’s stance on minor transgender care and New York officials. In December, the Department of Health and Human Services unveiled proposed rules that would cut Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals that provide puberty blockers, hormones, or surgeries to patients under 18 — funding that comprises a large share of many hospitals’ income.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated then that “the federal government will do everything in its power to stop unsafe, irreversible practices that put our children at risk.”
Oz pointed to policy changes abroad in his letter, citing a Trump-ordered report and saying its conclusions mirror choices by several European nations that have limited similar treatments. The United Kingdom enacted an indefinite ban on puberty blockers for those under 18 in December 2024 after an independent review by Dr. Hilary Cass found the drugs had “unproven benefits and significant risks.” Finland and Sweden have also put restrictions in place, with Swedish authorities recommending such care only “in exceptional cases.”
James argued NYU Langone’s action violated New York’s anti-discrimination laws, which prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. Her office noted that HHS’s proposal is not federal law and therefore the hospital must comply with state legal obligations. Srinivasan urged NYU Langone to restore medical services, including puberty blockers and hormone treatments.
In her Feb. 25 letter, James cautioned that “the sudden discontinuation of medically necessary transgender healthcare can have severe, negative health outcomes.” She expressed deep concern about the institution’s decision to stop care for what she described as a vulnerable minority group.
NYU Langone was among several prominent New York hospitals that reduced gender-affirming care for youth after the federal funding warnings. Mount Sinai canceled some appointments in early 2025, and New York-Presbyterian removed references to youth gender-affirming care from its website around the same period. Nationwide, more than 40 hospitals have ended gender-affirming programs for young people.
A hospital spokesperson told The Post in February that the choice followed the medical director’s exit and reflected the current regulatory climate, stressing their efforts to help patients through the transition while maintaining pediatric mental health services.
Legal scholar Jonathan Turley, a law professor and commentator, said the hospital is between “a rock and a hard place.” He noted that James is effectively ordering the hospital to defy the federal government, yet “the hospital, not James or the state, would bear the financial and regulatory consequences.”
The March 11 deadline passed without public compliance from NYU Langone and with no announcement from James’ office about additional steps.
