Attorney General Nessel Statement on Corewell Health’s Recent Announcement Regarding Transgender Healthcare

LANSING – Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel released the following statement in response to Corewell Health’s recent announcement to end certain care to minors for gender affirmation: 

“The decision by Corewell Health to end certain forms of essential healthcare for minors is deeply disappointing. They have chosen to capitulate to the federal administration’s discriminatory campaign against the trans community, despite Corewell not being a target of any federal action in this realm. Corewell’s shortsighted approach to conform their treatment options and “obey in advance” fails to adequately consider the long-term consequences to the health, safety and well-being of their patients. Michigan law has not changed; gender affirming care remains legal and is approved healthcare by leading healthcare associations.   

“The hospitals that choose to disregard science, best practices, and the recommendations of every major medical society in America create a dangerous precedent that could have long-lasting implications on all patients. We have seen virtue signaling from the federal administration that they intend to detrimentally attack many other areas of public health and medical treatment. We must ask ourselves: what other medical practices or care will this Administration target next – reproductive care, vaccines, scientific studies - and will our healthcare institutions quickly succumb to such pressure each and every time?

“The Department of Attorney General has already filed suit to challenge (PDF) the Trump Administration's unlawful actions targeting providers of gender affirming care for youth. And at least one court has found the Trump administration’s malicious investigation efforts against a medical provider to be unlawful (PDF). We urge healthcare institutions in Michigan to join our office and other institutions in fighting back against the federal government’s incursion into personal and sensitive healthcare decisions. These sensitive healthcare matters should not be determined by the government, but by parents in concert with their children and their family’s medical providers.    

“The Department of Attorney General stands with all of Michigan’s patients and the many medical institutions that continue to respect the law, eschew the discriminatory actions preferred by the federal administration, adhere to science as practiced and prescribed by expert physicians, and choose to take on the fight against those targeting their patients for political purposes.”