Stanford Medicine has stopped offering “gender-related surgical procedures” for minors and youths younger than age 19 as of June 2, according to a statement Stanford sent to The Epoch Times on June 25.

The decision took place “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,” the university said in the statement.

“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,” it stated.

The Pediatric and Adolescent Gender Clinic at Stanford Children’s Health, a clinic founded in 2015, became the second major health care provider in California to make such a move. Earlier in June, Children’s Hospital Los Angeles decided to close the Center for Transyouth Health and Development and its provided services effective July 22.

“We took this step to protect both our providers and patients,” Stanford said in the statement. “This was not a decision we made lightly, especially knowing how deeply this impacts the individuals and families who depend on our essential care and support.”

President Donald Trump on Jan. 28 signed an executive order titled “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which states that the United States “will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another.”

The executive order has been partially blocked by preliminary injunctions from federal courts in Washington state in February and in Maryland in March. Both cases are pending appeal.

In the meantime, however, the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) began to conduct an internal review independent of the terms of the executive order. Based on the results, the HHS has terminated 200 grants, totaling approximately $477 million, some of which were related to individuals identifying as transgender, according to an April 28 report from the White House.

On the other hand, California Attorney General Rob Bonta warned the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles in a Feb. 5 letter that under California law, “withholding services from transgender individuals ... while offering such services to cisgender individuals, is discrimination.”

A similar argument was used in the case of the federal government suing Tennessee in 2023.

In that case, the Supreme Court ruled 6–3 on June 18 this year to uphold Tennessee’s law. As the plaintiff, the Biden administration suggested that Tennessee’s ban on “gender-affirming care” for minors constituted a form of sex-based discrimination.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the ruling that the ban “does not violate the equal protection guarantee of the Fourteenth Amendment.”

A research paper published on JAMA Network in 2023 found that transgender surgeries nearly tripled from 2016 to 2019, and among the 48,019 confirmed cases of such surgeries nationwide, 3,678 (7.7 percent) of the patients were 12 to 18 years old.

More than 7,000 children were administered puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones during the first three years of the Biden administration, and more than 4,000 were subjected to sex-trait modification surgeries such as mastectomies, according to the April 28 White House report.

Erin Friday, a licensed California attorney and president of Our Duty, a parent group aiming to keep children away from gender ideology, told The Epoch Times: “Stanford only stopped sex trait modification surgical procedures, and that is not enough. It, and all of the providers of these procedures, need to stop all interventions on youth immediately.

“Treating a mental illness—a rejection of one’s natural body—should be done therapeutically. The science is lacking for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, and none of those inventions can change anyone’s sex.”

Dr. Riittakerttu Kaltiala, a leading Finnish pediatric gender expert, warned about transgender interventions for children. She told Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat that about 80 percent of children facing gender identity issues end up growing out of gender dysphoria.