On June 2, Stanford Medicine paused gender-affirming surgeries for individuals 18 years old and younger due to legal pressure from President Trump’s administration. 

Such legal pressures started shortly after Trump took office when he issued an executive order on January 20 with the purpose of “defending women … and restoring biological truth to the federal government,” it said. In section 2 of the order, it is stated that the United States recognizes only two “unchangeable” sexes: male and female. 

Several other executive orders from President Trump are also targeting transgender people, including the removal of the sex option “X” on passports and the move of transgender women to men’s prisons, according to an article by PBS.

Stanford Medicine released a statement on June 2 taking their position on the issue. 

“After careful review of the latest actions and directives from the federal government and following consultations with clinical leadership, including our multidisciplinary LGBTQ+ program and its providers, Stanford Medicine paused providing gender-related surgical procedures as part of our comprehensive range of medical services for LGBTQ+ patients under the age of 19,” the statement said.

The statement further declared that its purpose in this decision was not made lightly and was intended to protect both providers and patients, and they remain committed to providing high-quality medical services to the community.

Local transgender youth have expressed sadness and disappointment about the change, including transgender Los Altos High School student Ella Omura.

“I am greatly saddened by the recent decision,” Omura said. “I’m just overall very disappointed in the [Trump] administration right now. I know that they haven’t really taken a lot of trans youth or trans people’s opinions about gender-affirming care into account, and that is not very indicative of a holistically good administration.”