{"id":107839,"date":"2026-01-29T19:02:56","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T03:02:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/?p=107839"},"modified":"2026-01-29T19:56:53","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T03:56:53","slug":"mary-bridge-gender-affirming-care-clinic-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/mary-bridge-gender-affirming-care-clinic-closure\/","title":{"rendered":"Mary Bridge Children&#8217;s Hospital closes gender-affirming care clinic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Puget Sound trans teens seeking gender-affirming medical care have lost a medical ally: Tacoma\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marybridge.org\/\">MultiCare Mary Bridge Children\u2019s Hospital<\/a> will shut down its Gender Health Clinic this week.<\/p>\n<p>A hospital spokesperson confirmed that 320 current patients receiving gender-affirming hormone therapy, puberty blockers, and other medications at the clinic will need to get those medications elsewhere. More than 150 families were on the waiting list for care at the hospital at the time of the closure announcement.<\/p>\n<p>In a statement, MultiCare placed the blame for the closure squarely on the shoulders of the Trump administration:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDue to recent escalations at the federal level to eliminate medical interventions to treat gender dysphoria for minors nationwide, as well as investigations and significant penalizations of health care organizations that provide such care,\u202f MultiCare Health System has made the difficult choice to close the MultiCare Mary Bridge Children\u2019s Gender Health Clinic.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was an incredibly painful decision, and one that we wish that we did not have to make,\u201d hospital officials wrote.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Federal pressures hit all hospitals providing gender-affirming care<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>Federal pressure to stop hospitals from providing gender-affirming medical care has been felt by all gender-affirming medical providers in \u00a0the region and throughout the nation. Seattle Children\u2019s Hospital has not closed its gender-affirming care program. However, it remains under federal investigation regarding its practices. Seattle Children\u2019s is operating and accepting referrals for adolescents.<\/p>\n<p>According to the statement, MultiCare has tried in myriad ways to keep the clinic open:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOver the last year, we have worked to find options that would allow us to continue to care for this important group of patients.\u202fUnfortunately, continuing to provide gender-care-related medical treatment to minors puts our organization and our providers at too great a risk for government investigation and enforcement actions, including cutting off Medicare and Medicaid payments to MultiCare&#8217;s entire health system.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Loss of those funds would be devastating for local families:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNearly 75% of MultiCare patients \u2014 and more than 62% of Mary Bridge Children\u2019s patients \u2014 depend on Medicare and Medicaid,\u201d MultiCare officials wrote. \u201cLoss of this funding not only undermines MultiCare\u2019s ability to operate, but more critically, threatens patients&#8217; access to essential care in every region that MultiCare offers care.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Patients currently being seen at the Multicare Mary Bridge Gender Health Clinic will be able to receive behavioral health care at the hospital, and staff are working to direct those patients to other providers.<\/p>\n<h4><strong>Trans youth under attack<\/strong><\/h4>\n<p>In December, the administration of President Donald Trump acted to erase what he once called \u201ca stain on our Nation\u2019s history\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.kuow.org\/stories\/rfk-jr-and-dr-oz-announce-moves-to-ban-gender-affirming-care-for-young-people\">by establishing new rules that effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors<\/a> throughout the United States. To ensure doctors comply, the administration said it will refuse or pull back federal funding from hospitals that offer such treatment. At a time when hospitals are trying to figure out how to keep doors open in the face of current Medicaid cuts (and those coming down the pike) few are likely to challenge Trump\u2019s no-funding hammer.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.govinfo.gov\/content\/pkg\/FR-2025-12-19\/pdf\/2025-23465.pdf\">The proposed new U.S. Department of Health and Human Serviecs rules\u00a0<\/a>were announced a day after Republicans in the House of Representatives approved legislation making it a crime (punishable by a find or up to 10 years in prison) to provide transgender minors with gender-affirming care. That proposal would Senate approval.<\/p>\n<p>And this month in Olympia,<a href=\"https:\/\/www.seattleschild.com\/parental-rights-trans-athlete-initiatives-will-most-likely-go-to-voters\/\"> lawmakers said they will not hear an initiative<\/a> to block transgender girls from competing in girls\u2019 sports in committee, all but ensuring that it will go to voters in November.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www2.sos.wa.gov\/_assets\/elections\/initiatives\/finaltext_3276.pdf?_gl=1*mmnqy*_ga*NTkxMjkxOTMzLjE3MzYyOTY5NzU.*_ga_7B08VE04WV*czE3NTczNDc4NDkkbzIxJGcxJHQxNzU3MzUzMjE2JGo1MiRsMCRoMA..*_ga_X6SDF160YQ*czE3NTczNDc4NDkkbzExJGcxJHQxNzU3MzUzMjE2JGo1MiRsMCRoMA..\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Initiative Measure No. IL26-638 (IL26-638)<\/a> is backed by the political committee <a href=\"https:\/\/letsgowashington.com\/\">Let\u2019s Go Washington<\/a> and conservative hedge fund manager Brian Heywood. The group turned in more than 400,000 signatures for the initiative.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hundreds of teens will need to find support elsewhere<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1182,"featured_media":107841,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,112,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-107839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-news","category-parenting"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.0 (Yoast SEO v26.8) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mary Bridge Closes Gender-Affirming Care Clinic in Tacoma<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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