Dr. Mehmet Oz fired back at New York Attorney General Letitia James on March 10, defending NYU Langone Medical Center’s decision to permanently shut down its transgender youth health program and declaring that “our children are not guinea pigs.”
In a letter obtained by The New York Post, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator challenged James’ threats of legal action against the Big Apple hospital, accusing her office of attempting to force doctors to perform “potentially life-altering medical procedures on children that are not solidly grounded in science to make a political point.”
The confrontation erupted after NYU Langone permanently ended its Transgender Youth Health Program on Feb. 18 following the Trump administration’s threat to pull Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals providing gender-affirming care to minors. The program’s medical director departed, and the hospital’s website quietly redirected visitors to a page titled “Gender & Sexuality Service” — a program focused on psychotherapy rather than medical interventions.
James responded on Feb. 25 with a letter to the medical system claiming the program’s cancellation was “jeopardizing access to medically necessary healthcare for some of the most vulnerable New Yorkers.” Her Health Care Bureau Chief, Darsana Srinivasan, gave NYU Langone until Wednesday, March 11, to resume the procedures or face “further action.”
Oz pulled no punches in his response. The former cardiothoracic surgeon and TV personality stated his office stands behind NYU’s decision and called the discontinuation of what he termed “sex-rejecting procedures” for children “a serious and necessary course correction” aimed at stopping “surgical and chemical interventions on vulnerable children with potentially irreversible consequences.”
The CMS administrator argued that the medical debate surrounding transgender procedures for minors remains unresolved. He wrote that it is “both irresponsible and false to declare the other side of this ongoing scientific debate definitively ‘medically necessary'” and called James’ claim that discontinuing these interventions constitutes unlawful discrimination “irresponsible.”
The clash highlights the growing divide between the Trump administration’s policies on transgender care for minors and state-level officials in New York. In December, the Department of Health and Human Services announced proposed rules that would slash Medicare and Medicaid funding from hospitals providing puberty blockers, hormones, or surgeries to patients younger than 18 — funding that makes up a significant portion of hospital revenues.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said at the time that “the federal government will do everything in its power to stop unsafe, irreversible practices that put our children at risk.”
Oz cited international policy shifts in his letter, referencing a report ordered by the Trump administration and noting that findings align with decisions by several European governments that have placed restrictions on similar treatments. The United Kingdom imposed an indefinite ban on puberty blockers for under-18s in December 2024, following an independent review by Dr. Hilary Cass that concluded the drugs have “unproven benefits and significant risks.” Finland and Sweden previously implemented restrictions as well, with Swedish authorities recommending such treatments be provided “only in exceptional cases.”
James claimed NYU Langone’s decision violated New York’s anti-discrimination laws, which ban discrimination based on gender identity. Her office argued that HHS’s proposal has not been enacted as federal law and therefore the hospital must fulfill its existing obligations under state law. Srinivasan asked NYU Langone to resume medical services including puberty blockers and hormone therapies.
In her Feb. 25 letter, James warned that “the sudden discontinuation of medically necessary transgender healthcare can have severe, negative health outcomes.” The Attorney General expressed extreme concern over the institution’s decision to cease care for what she described as a vulnerable minority population.
NYU Langone was not the only high-profile hospital in New York to curb gender-affirming care for youth following the federal funding threats. Mount Sinai cancelled some appointments in early 2025, and New York-Presbyterian scrubbed language about gender-affirming care for youth from its website around the same time. More than 40 hospitals nationwide have terminated their gender-affirming care programs for young people over the past year.
A hospital spokesman told The Post in February that the decision came after the medical director’s departure and cited the current regulatory environment, emphasizing their commitment to helping patients manage the change while continuing pediatric mental health care programs.
Legal expert Jonathan Turley, a law professor and legal analyst, wrote that the hospital is caught between “a rock and a hard place.” He observed that James is “effectively ordering the hospital to defy the federal government” but that “the hospital, not James or the state, would bear the financial and regulatory consequences.”
Neither the Attorney General’s office nor NYU Langone officials returned requests for comment following Oz’s letter. The March 11 deadline set by James’ office passed without public indication of whether the hospital complied or what further action the Attorney General might take.