Dozens of liberal elected officials across Wisconsin are demanding that UW Health and Children’s Wisconsin resume providing so-called “gender affirming care” for minors after both hospital systems moved to reassess or pause certain transgender-related medical services for children amid mounting federal scrutiny.
In a public letter released Tuesday, a coalition of Democrat lawmakers and self-described “Transgender and Gender Diverse legislators” criticized the hospitals for backing away from what they described as “evidence-based medical care” for transgender-identifying youth.
“We are deeply disappointed by UW Health’s and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin’s decision to pause this care,” the letter states. “The speed with which access to care was withdrawn has caused fear, disruption, and a profound loss of trust among patients and families.”
The letter also urged both hospital systems to “reverse this decision to the fullest extent legally possible” and “stand clearly and publicly in defense of equitable access to medically necessary care.”
The hospitals began reevaluating services after federal actions late last year threatened funding for hospitals that provide transgender-related medical interventions to minors, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and other procedures increasingly facing scrutiny nationwide.
The debate over pediatric gender medicine and transgender surgeries on minors has become a major political issue in Wisconsin and across the country, with Republicans arguing that minors should not be subjected to irreversible medical interventions for gender dysphoria.
Earlier this session, Republican lawmakers introduced 2025 Assembly Bill 104, legislation that would have prohibited gender transition procedures for minors in Wisconsin. The bill faced unified opposition from Democrats and was ultimately vetoed by Democrat Gov. Tony Evers.
Republicans have argued the procedures carry significant long-term risks, including sterilization, loss of fertility, and irreversible physical changes, while critics have increasingly pointed to European countries that have scaled back pediatric gender-transition treatments after conducting systematic reviews of the evidence.
Earlier this year, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons distanced itself from support for gender-transition surgeries on minors following a closely watched New York court ruling in which a detransitioner was awarded $2 million in damages related to transition procedures performed while she was a child.
Republican lawmakers also passed legislation this session creating a civil cause of action allowing minors who later regret transgender medical procedures to sue providers for damages. Evers vetoed that proposal as well.
Supporters of the medical interventions argue the treatments are endorsed by major medical organizations and can reduce depression and suicide risk among transgender-identifying youth, despite little reputable evidence to support that claim.
The letter, co-signed by more than 80 current or former liberal elected officials, comes as legal, political, and medical battles surrounding transgender procedures for minors continue escalating nationwide.
