Rady Children's will stop providing gender-affirming care

S1: Welcome in San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. On today's show , the impact of cuts to transgender youth care in San Diego. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. This week , San Diego's Rady Children's Hospital announced they'll stop providing gender affirming procedures and prescriptions. The hospital pointed to federal pressure to end that care or risk losing funding. Families were notified Tuesday. Advocacy groups are planning to protest this weekend. Joining me to talk about it is Kathy Molik , founder and executive director of Trans Family Support Services. Kathy , welcome back to Midday Edition. Thanks.

S2: Thanks. Always a pleasure.

S1: Jade , Always glad to have you on. So.

S2: You know , the last year has been so horrific with the attacks from the federal government against trans and in particular our trans youth. Um , and we have known about the centers for Medicaid Services policies that were announced mid-December. That is about cutting this , this Medicaid funding to our hospitals , if they're providing gender affirming care to minors. We've known about this for many , many months. So it wasn't surprising. It still is shocking and obviously devastating to the families that Rady serves.

S1: And I know you all held a town hall last night with families.

S2: We had some youth that that joined us. Um , youth are devastated. You know , if you you think about this piece of , as a parent , I should be able to hold the decisions about my children's medical care between myself , my child and their provider. But instead , we have politicians who are pulling all the levers of government that they can to stop me from having that right. You know , and and honestly , Redis has done , you know , early capitulation to the government. These are policies that have been announced. There's nothing that is set in law. There is nothing that has been instituted other than fear of what they might face down the road. Mhm.

S1: Do you have any sense of how many youth are impacted by this decision.

S2: So Redis gender clinic serves about a thousand patients. And , you know , it is the only clinic that we have in the county. There is not a clinic even in Imperial County. There's , uh , Orange County Children's Hospital of Orange County is actually merged with Rady Children's. So they also are closing their program. So getting care is going to become very , very challenging for those patients. Last April , Children's Hospital Los Angeles also closed their program. And they served like 3000 patients. So in Southern California , the handful of providers we have left are being greatly impacted. Hmm.

S1: Hmm. You know , we reached out to Rady Children's Hospital for comment , but they did not respond by our deadline. But other news outlets have reported that Rady Children's cited federal pressure to end this care over concerns of losing funding , as you mentioned. Do you think those concerns have any merit.

S2: So , you know , the federal government is is doing what the federal government's doing in so many different places. What I can tell you is that , you know , there's already lawsuits to stop this. The secretary of HHS , Secretary Kennedy , had also , at the same time that these policies came out , came out with a declaration that basically said the same thing. Anybody doing this care for minors , they were going to , you know , withhold funding where they could criminalize the care. Um , but that is already 22 attorneys general from across the country have joined in a lawsuit. And because they filed that lawsuit , there is an agreement that the government will not take any action until that suit is heard. So that's why I talk about this being early capitulation. Right. And and , you know , the true villain in this story is not Rady Children's Hospital. The true villain is absolutely our federal government and this administration that has had it out for our kids from day one , but but also is taking early steps because of fear. And also they have not really allowed a very good off ramp for our families. There is not an easy transition to care. They gave less like a two week notice to these families and and we don't have providers to send them to in a two week time span.

S1: You know , I want to talk about what actually falls under the scope of gender affirming care while we're here to , you know , this is everything from actual procedures to prescriptions , right ? Right.

S2: Correct. So the the wording of their statement and the wording of the notification that they sent to patients really was a little ambiguous because they are stopping care , right ? I mean , it says that they will continue with mental health and some counseling , but they don't. Their system is not set up for long term mental health care. They only do assessments of of individuals that come for services. So I'm not sure how they are going to transition to that because they just don't have the staffing. But gender affirming care can look like for our adolescents. First of all , I want to make it clear that no children are getting gender affirming care. It doesn't. Medical care does not happen until you hit adolescence and hit puberty. So it would be puberty blockers which are are used often , and then cross-sex hormones , which are used for older teenagers. And it is very , very rare that someone under the age of 18 would have any surgery. But there are times where that is the right protocol. But this isn't that just , you know , you pick up the phone and you call a local doctor and you get an appointment and that's it. There are so many things , hoops and and hurdles that you have to go through. This care is not taken lightly by the providers or by the parents at all.

S1:

S2: Um , and then we have others like Boston Children's Children's of Philadelphia , that are fighting the government and and creating their own lawsuits to be able to still provide this care.

S1: Well , there is a protest planned this Saturday outside Rady Children's. Can you tell me about that ? Yeah.

S2: So we're organizing a protest and a press conference outside the the hospital to bring attention to this , to make sure that it doesn't go unnoticed. Um , really trying to call for ready to , you know , kind of come back to the table and look at maybe they could do a 60 day sort of piece that would allow time for these policies that the federal government has announced. They're still in a comment period , which is , uh , required for the government before they make these policies , and then they will go to litigation. So a 60 day sort of window would allow for us to see where all of this lands and whether they're really going to , to be threatened , of having their funding taken away or not. It also would allow for our families to have a better handoff from the providers. Mhm.

S1: Mhm. And quickly , what do you say to families and youth who will really be impacted by this loss of care ? Yeah.

S2: So , you know , we serve thousands of California families. Um , and our message sent all of this started is care is still legal in the state of California. Care is still available in the state of California. It will not be as easily accessible to individuals. Um , we have other providers that are providing this care , some on a cash basis , some that are taking Medi-Cal. So to families in youth , I would say it will be a little bit more difficult for a while to get your care , but you can absolutely still get care and reach out to us if you are not already connected to us , so that we can help you in finding those providers.

S1: I've been speaking with Kathy Molik. She's founder and executive director of Trans Family Support Services. Kathy. Thank you.

S2: Thanks so much.

S1: That's our show for today.

S3: I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.