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Mount Sinai reaches deal with Trump DOJ to end gender-affirming care for minors
By
Giulia Heyward
and
Caroline Lewis
Published Sep 4, 2026
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ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images
By
Giulia Heyward
and
Caroline Lewis
Published Sep 4, 2026
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Mount Sinai Health System reached a deal with the Trump administration to end gender-affirming care for minors in order to resolve a federal investigation into the hospital’s practices, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday.
According to the announcement, Mount Sinai will also pay a “monetary penalty” and will allocate $2 million to provide free medical services to patients suffering from what the DOJ described as the “harmful consequences” of care they received at Mount Sinai as children. The DOJ said it was investigating potential violations of federal law by Mount Sinai but did not share the conclusions of that investigation.
Gothamist previously reported that Mount Sinai stopped providing services such as puberty blockers and hormone therapy to trans and gender-non-conforming children earlier this year, but the health system never made a formal announcement.
In a statement on Friday evening, a spokesperson for Mount Sinai said that the hospital entered into the settlement “so that Mount Sinai will not be compelled to produce these highly sensitive patient records to the grand jury.”
“We entered into this settlement to protect our patients’ privacy and to allow our physicians to remain focused on our mission of serving our patients and communities with the highest-quality, world-class care,” Mount Sinai spokesperson Lucia L. Lee said in a statement.
Mount Sinai is the latest in a string of U.S. hospitals to reach similar agreements with the Trump administration, including Texas Children’s Hospital, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation and the Connecticut Children’s Hospital, the DOJ said.
The announcement follows other efforts by the Trump administration to force hospitals to discontinue their treatment of children and teens with gender dysphoria. Earlier this year, the Trump administration subpoenaed Mount Sinai and NYU Langone to hand over the public health data of any minor who received gender-affirming care at the hospitals over the past six years. However, the White House’s actions were later blocked in court.
The DOJ said Mount Sinai had been “cooperative” with the White House, which it said was evident in its “multimillion-dollar commitment to detransition care.”
“The Department of Justice is committed to holding accountable medical providers that violate federal law and endanger children through so-called gender-affirming care,” said U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche. “This agreement puts an end to these practices at Mount Sinai and provides meaningful relief for individuals who have already suffered harm.”
New York Attorney General Letitia James' office said it is reviewing the settlement. Separately, earlier this week James and a coalition of other state AGs sued the Trump administration over a rule blocking states from receiving federal Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program for gender-affirming care provided to adolescents.
Mount Sinai patient Quincy May Cavanagh said she found the health system’s actions “cowardly.”
Cavanagh, now a 21-year-old college student, said she began receiving estrogen from the hospital as a treatment for her gender dysphoria at 17 and it had an immediate, positive impact on her mood and demeanor.
“I was really able to make a change that just drastically improved my life,” Cavanagh said.
She added that she’s glad she started at 17 before she underwent “permanent masculinization” but wishes she had gotten the process underway sooner, since she became aware of being transgender in middle school.
“I'm a real person who really benefited from this care, and now there's gonna be real people just like me who are not gonna be able to get it,” Cavanagh said.
Allie Bohm, senior policy counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union said it was disturbing that Mount Sinai "capitulated to the Trump regime and inked an agreement suspending gender-affirming care for transgender young people."
"Gender-affirming care helps people live as their authentic selves, and can be lifesaving," she said in a statement. "Our state’s hospitals and providers have both a moral and legal obligation to provide needed healthcare to all patients, including trans youth."
NEW Pride Agenda Executive Director Kei Williams said the group rejects the inflammatory language and false narrative the DOJ is utilizing to spread misinformation.
"Gender-affirming care is exactly that: essential, evidence-based healthcare utilized by people across ages, economic backgrounds, and gender identities," Williams said in a statement.
“This settlement underscores a growing threat here in New York. If hospitals and providers stop offering gender-affirming care because they fear federal investigations, funding threats, or political retribution, access disappears," Williams said.
Tyler Hack, the executive director of the advocacy group Christopher Street Project, said Mount Sinai’s decision to put politics over their own patients will have "reprehensible outcomes - it will kill kids."
“Mount Sinai is not the first hospital to fold, and it won't be the last," Hack said in a statement. "The Trump Administration is trying to scare institutions into a false choice. Hospitals must choose to stand up to these power grabs and hold the line to protect their patients.”
This story was updated with comments from Mount Sinai, NYCLU, NEW Pride Agenda and Christopher Street Project.
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Giulia Heyward
Giulia Heyward is a breaking news reporter on the Day-Of desk. She previously worked at NPR, as a breaking news reporter, and the New York Times, as a reporting fellow on the national desk. Her work has also appeared in CNN, The Atlantic and Politico. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or more securely on signal at 917-715-1458.
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Caroline Lewis
Caroline Lewis is on the health care beat for WNYC and Gothamist. She has covered COVID, a nurses' strike, the overdose crisis and New York’s marijuana legalization effort, and spent a year investigating patients' medical bills. She always wants to hear about how everyday New Yorkers experience the health system. Got a tip? Email [email protected].
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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