Overview

• Advocate Health confirmed it revised its policy to end prescriptions of puberty blockers and hormone therapies for patients younger than 19.
• The system operates 69 hospitals across six states, including 11 hospitals and 200 care sites in Illinois, making the shift significant for statewide access.
• Advocate said it is contacting affected families and has set up a hotline to offer counseling and guidance related to the change.
• The move follows a regional pullback, with UChicago Medicine discontinuing all pediatric gender care and Rush, UI Health, and Lurie Children’s scaling back surgeries or medications for minors.
• The cutbacks track federal actions, including President Trump’s executive order threatening research and Medicare/Medicaid funding and more than 20 DOJ subpoenas, one seeking patient identifiers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia; Illinois and 15 other states filed suit on Aug. 1 challenging the directives.