A Department of Justice subpoena tied to criminal and civil investigations into gender-affirming care for minors prompted the University of Michigan health system to suspend puberty blockers and hormone therapies for patients under 19. The subpoena warned of potential civil and criminal liability and ordered that records not be destroyed. The university's health system is one of only two major providers of pediatric gender-affirming care in Michigan, creating an immediate service gap for transgender youth. At least 21 hospitals and health systems nationwide have curtailed or ended youth gender-affirming services since January, with some removing public information.
"The University of Michigan, including Michigan Medicine, is one of multiple institutions across the country that has received a federal subpoena as part of a criminal and civil investigation into gender-affirming care for minors," the system said in a statement to Talking Points Memo. "In light of that investigation, and given escalating external threats and risks, we will no longer provide gender affirming hormonal therapies and puberty blocker medications for minors."
"The July 14 subpoena warned administrators and doctors that both civil and criminal liability could follow. Physicians were instructed not to destroy records. One source told TPM the order was understood as a direct threat of prosecution. The impact in Michigan is immediate. The university's health system is one of only two major providers of gender-affirming care in the state. "It would leave a big hole in services," Rachel Crandall Crocker, cofounder of TransGender Michigan, told TPM."
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