Dr. Mehmet Oz responded to New York Attorney General Letitia James on March 10, defending NYU Langone Medical Center’s choice to permanently close its Transgender Youth Health Program and asserting 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’ legal threats toward the New York 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 began after NYU Langone shut down the program on Feb. 18, following the Trump administration’s warning it might withdraw Medicare and Medicaid payments from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors. The program’s medical director left, and the hospital quietly redirected that program page to “Gender & Sexuality Service,” a service emphasizing psychotherapy instead of medical treatments.
On Feb. 25, James sent a letter to the medical system asserting the closure was “jeopardizing access to medically necessary healthcare for some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers.” Her Health Care Bureau Chief, Darsana Srinivasan, gave NYU Langone until Wednesday, March 11, to restart the procedures or face “further action.”
Oz did not hold back in his rebuttal. The former cardiothoracic surgeon and television personality said his office supports NYU’s move and described ending what he called “sex-rejecting procedures” for children as “a serious and necessary course correction” to halt “surgical and chemical interventions on vulnerable children with potentially irreversible consequences.”
The CMS chief maintained that the clinical debate over transgender treatments for minors is ongoing. He argued it is “both irresponsible and false to declare the other side of this ongoing scientific debate definitively ‘medically necessary'” and labeled James’ assertion that stopping these treatments amounts to unlawful discrimination as “irresponsible.”
The showdown underscores the widening split between the Trump administration’s stance on transgender care for minors and New York officials. In December, the Department of Health and Human Services unveiled proposed rules that would slash Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals that offer puberty blockers, hormones, or surgeries to patients under 18 — funding that represents a large share of hospital income.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated at the time that “the federal government will do everything in its power to stop unsafe, irreversible practices that put our children at risk.”
In his letter, Oz pointed to policy changes abroad, citing a report ordered by the Trump administration and saying its conclusions are consistent with several European nations that have limited similar treatments. The U.K. imposed an indefinite ban on puberty blockers for under-18s in December 2024 after an independent review by Dr. Hilary Cass found the drugs have “unproven benefits and significant risks.” Finland and Sweden have also placed restrictions, with Swedish officials advising such care be used “only in exceptional cases.”
James argued NYU Langone’s decision violated New York’s anti-discrimination laws that prohibit discrimination based on gender identity. Her office maintained that HHS’s proposal is not federal law and therefore the hospital must meet its current obligations under state statutes. Srinivasan demanded that NYU Langone reinstate medical services like puberty blockers and hormone therapy.
In her Feb. 25 letter, James warned that “the sudden discontinuation of medically necessary transgender healthcare can have severe, negative health outcomes.” The Attorney General expressed deep alarm over the institution’s move to stop care for what she described as a vulnerable minority group.
NYU Langone was among several prominent New York hospitals to scale back gender-affirming care for youth after the federal funding threats. 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. Over 40 hospitals nationwide have ended their youth gender-affirming care programs.
A hospital spokesman told The Post in February that the choice followed the medical director’s departure and pointed to the current regulatory climate, stressing their commitment to help patients through the change while maintaining pediatric mental health services.
Legal commentator Jonathan Turley, a law professor, said the hospital is stuck “between a rock and a hard place.” He noted that James is “effectively ordering the hospital to defy the federal government” while “the hospital, not James or the state, would bear the financial and regulatory consequences.”
The March 11 deadline elapsed with no public indication that NYU Langone complied and no update from James’ office about further steps.
