Mount Sinai agrees to halt youth transgender procedures after Justice Department intervention
Mount Sinai Health System will stop providing sex reassignment procedures to minors and pay a penalty as part of an agreement with the Justice Department, which is investigating hospitals over pediatric transgender treatments.
Mount Sinai, one of New York City's largest hospital systems, has agreed to stop providing sex reassignment procedures to minors following a Justice Department investigation into pediatric transgender treatments. The agreement, announced by Attorney General Todd Blanche, includes a monetary penalty and requires the hospital to dedicate $2 million to free medical care for people who suffered harmful consequences from transgender treatments they received as children.
«The Department of Justice is committed to holding accountable medical providers that violate federal law and endanger children through so-called gender-affirming care,» Blanche said. «This agreement puts an end to these practices at Mount Sinai and provides meaningful relief for individuals who have already suffered harm.» The hospital's Institute for Advanced Medicine reported that its providers saw 4,931 transgender and gender-diverse patients in 2025, though the exact number of minors receiving sex reassignment procedures has not been publicly disclosed.
The agreement is part of an ongoing Justice Department investigation into hospitals providing such procedures to minors, examining potential violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, the False Claims Act, and other federal health care laws. The department has also been looking into alleged fraudulent billing practices, including the use of false diagnosis codes to obtain payment from federal health care programs and private insurers.
Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate of the Civil Division said the resolution reflects a broader shift among medical institutions. «A growing number of hospitals, like Mount Sinai, have recognized the medical scandal of sex-rejecting procedures,» Shumate said. «While we are grateful when we secure resolutions to end this discredited practice and protect children, we must not and will not rest in our pursuit of justice for the victims it has left behind.»
Curbing sex reassignment procedures for minors has been a priority for the Trump administration. A week after taking office, President Donald Trump issued an executive order titled «Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,» which sought to defund federal funding for gender reassignment procedures and directed the Justice Department to enforce the nation's female genital mutilation laws and investigate drug-safety violations and potential parental rights violations.
The executive order also directed federal agencies to rescind or amend policies that rely on guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), a professional association that develops standards of care for transgender and gender-diverse patients. WPATH is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission and several states, which allege the group made false and unsubstantiated claims about the safety, effectiveness, and medical necessity of pediatric medical-transition services. That case is pending.
WPATH's medical guidelines served as the foundation for Mount Sinai's own guidelines for transgender procedures. Dr. Joshua Safer, executive director of the Mount Sinai Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery, has co-authored WPATH guidelines. The Justice Department did not release the full details of the agreement but acknowledged that the hospital «remained cooperative, proactive, and solution-driven» throughout the investigation.
In a statement to the New York Times, Mount Sinai said: «The settlement is complex, but at its core reflects Mount Sinai's commitment to safeguarding our patients' confidential information and protecting our clinicians.»
Mount Sinai's agreement is the latest in a series of settlements the Justice Department has reached with major hospitals providing transgender procedures. Texas Children's Hospital, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and Connecticut Children's Hospital have all agreed to halt youth transgender procedures in recent months.
