A coalition of more than 60 Wisconsin organizations, faith communities, and local businesses, organized by Fair Wisconsin, issued an open letter last week to UW Health and Children’s Wisconsin urging them to resume gender affirming care for youth. Both hospitals ceased providing that care under pressure from the Trump Administration earlier this year.

A separate open letter was also issued by the Trans & Gender Diverse Elected Officials Delegation, which includes seven members of local, state and federal governments. That letter has signatures from an additional 90 elected officials.

The Fair Wisconsin letter urges UW Health and Children’s Wisconsin to “restart the provision of gender-affirming care to transgender youth. Gender-affirming care is legal in Wisconsin, but it is increasingly more and more difficult to access due to decisions made to pause the provision of this care at your institutions. These decisions must be reversed and care restarted immediately.” 

The letter from the Trans & Gender Diverse Elected Officials Delegation notes, “We are deeply disappointed by UW Health’s and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin’s decision to pause this care. While we understand the uncertainty created by shifting federal actions, the speed with which access to care was withdrawn has caused fear, disruption, and a profound loss of trust among patients and families who depend on UW Health and Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.”

The letters come in the wake of a decision in April by a federal judge that vacated (i.e. blocked) the so-called Kennedy Declaration from December 2025, an edict from Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. that threatened to revoke all federal funding, including Medicare and Medicaid, for any hospital or provider that offered gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

Despite the declaration not being legally binding, the threat was enough for hospitals across the country to abruptly cease providing what is widely recognized to be safe, medically necessary, often life-saving care, including UW Health and Children’s Wisconsin. This interruption of care often came without warning to the families.

“We actually learned about the UW PATH clinic closure through social media, not directly from UW Health. It was a complete shock,” says TJ, the mother of a trans child who’d been receiving care there (who requested to use only her initials to maintain privacy for her family).

Both hospitals cited those federal threats, along with “legal uncertainty,” in media statements at the time care was paused. The judge’s April ruling, however, not only vacated the Kennedy Declaration, but issued an injunction against “any use of the declaration or any materially similar policy against the plaintiff states, including Wisconsin.”

The Fair Wisconsin letter goes on to note that the “decision puts a stop to the federal action that had, until now, presented the most imminent threat of enforcement. The other most recent federal action was the proposal of rules threatening access to gender-affirming care for youth, and those proposed rules are exactly that – proposed, not finalized, and not in effect. As Judge Kasubhai stated in his decision out of the District Court of Oregon, ‘there is nothing more serious than our leaders’ dedication to the rule of law,’ and we agree; we call on our hospital leaders to act on their dedication to their patients and reinstate this legal and medically necessary care for our youth.”

The letter from the Trans & Gender Diverse Elected Officials Delegation further emphasizes the point:

“This moment raises an important question: if healthcare institutions retreat from established standards of care at the first sign of political pressure, where is the line? Communities deserve confidence that medically necessary treatment will not become negotiable whenever it becomes politically controversial. Transgender and gender diverse people are not political talking points. They are our constituents, neighbors, students, coworkers, friends, and family members. Their healthcare, dignity, and safety deserve protection not only when it is easy, but especially when it is difficult.”

When reached for comment about whether the PATH Clinic would resume care in wake of the decision, UW Health Media Relation Manager Sara Benzel passed along the following statement:

“In January 2026, UW Health made the decision to pause providing medication therapies for pediatric and adolescent gender affirming care due to ongoing federal actions that threaten health systems that provide this care. This decision was not made lightly. While we continue to believe this is evidence-based care, the current risk level is too great to resume this care. We recognize the challenges faced by impacted patients and families and remain committed to providing patient-centered care and supporting their health and well-being throughout this critical time.”

Children’s Wisconsin did not respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, families and trans children in particular are left struggling to receive the care and support they need. 

“The impact on our family has been significant emotionally, even though we’ve tried to shield our daughter from as much of this as possible,” TJ said. “We still try to limit conversations about the closure around her because she is already very aware that there are people who don’t agree with who she is. When she first learned about it, she was extremely tearful and confused. She genuinely cannot understand why adults would knowingly harm children who simply want to live as themselves. One of the things she keeps saying is that she’s scared for the kids whose families don’t have the resources or ability to travel elsewhere for care.

“Like any parents, we will go to the ends of the earth for our child. We were really depending on UW Health to do the right thing and follow the overwhelming research and medical evidence showing that gender-affirming care is lifesaving care. Instead, it feels like the people making these decisions are throwing vulnerable children under the bus because they are afraid of political pressure, and it has been devastating for families like ours.”