California’s AG Wants to Force a Hospital to Perform Gender Procedures on Kids or Else

When Compliance Becomes a Crime

Here’s where we are: A children’s hospital in San Diego made the agonizing choice to stop performing gender transition procedures on minors. The federal government said if you keep doing this, we’ll pull your funding and shut you down. The hospital, Rady Children’s Hospital, looked at the math and realized that losing federal support meant closing their doors entirely. So they stopped. They chose to keep serving sick kids over one controversial program.

California Attorney General Rob Bonta saw this and thought, “Not on my watch.” He filed a lawsuit.

Let that sink in for a second. A state attorney general is suing a hospital for choosing not to perform medical procedures on children. Procedures that involve puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and in some cases surgical interventions. Procedures that an increasing number of European countries have pulled back from after reviewing the evidence. Sweden, Finland, the UK. They’ve all pumped the brakes. But California? California wants to make it legally mandatory.

The State Knows Best, Apparently

Bonta’s argument hinges on a merger agreement between Rady Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Orange County. He claims the hospital violated its commitment to continue offering gender transition care to minors. It’s a clever legal maneuver, I’ll give him that. Use contract law to force medical practice.

But here’s what gets glossed over in all this legal maneuvering: Rady didn’t want to stop. They said the decision was “very difficult.” The statement they released made it clear this wasn’t ideological grandstanding. It was survival. They’re a nonprofit pediatric healthcare system. They serve thousands of kids across Southern California. If the federal government pulls their funding, those kids lose access to cancer treatment, cardiac care, neonatal intensive care. Everything.

So what’s more important? Keeping one gender clinic open or keeping an entire children’s hospital operational?

You know what’s fascinating about this whole situation? The same people who spent years shouting “my body, my choice” now want the government to force hospitals to perform specific medical procedures. The same crowd that rails against government overreach in healthcare wants a state AG to dictate clinical practice. The irony is so thick you could cut it with a scalpel.

The Trump Effect

President Trump signed an executive order last year directing the Department of Health and Human Services to protect children from what he called “chemical and surgical mutilation.” Strong language, sure. But it reflects a growing concern that’s not limited to conservatives anymore. Parents across the political spectrum are starting to ask hard questions about why we’re medicalizing kids who can’t legally get a tattoo.

The science here isn’t settled, no matter how much activists insist otherwise. Long-term studies are sparse. The Cass Review in the UK, one of the most comprehensive examinations of pediatric gender medicine, found the evidence base to be “remarkably weak.” Kids who might have simply been gay or going through normal adolescent identity struggles are being fast-tracked toward irreversible medical interventions.

And before anyone accuses me of lacking compassion, let me be clear: Kids struggling with gender dysphoria deserve care. Real care. Thoughtful care. Not a conveyor belt to hormones and surgery. Not affirmation-only approaches that treat any hesitation as bigotry.

Where This Goes Next

California joined 19 other Democrat-led states in suing the Trump administration over policies restricting pediatric gender transitions. It’s become a litmus test, a line in the sand. You’re either with the program or you’re a monster.

But most Americans don’t live in these extremes. Most parents want their kids to be happy and healthy. They want doctors to do no harm. They want time and caution when it comes to life-altering medical decisions. These aren’t radical positions.

Rady Children’s Hospital made a call. They weighed their options and chose to keep their doors open for all the kids who need them. They chose the many over the few. That’s not discrimination. That’s triage.

Rob Bonta sees it differently. He sees a hospital that needs to be punished for not falling in line with California’s ideological orthodoxy. He’s weaponizing the legal system to enforce compliance with a medical paradigm that’s increasingly questioned worldwide.

The hospital’s statement said their decision “was guided by our responsibilities as a nonprofit pediatric healthcare system to continue serving all children and families.” That’s the key phrase. All children. Not just the ones seeking gender transitions, but the ones with leukemia, the ones with heart defects, the ones who need emergency surgery at 2 a.m.

If Bonta gets his way, hospitals will face an impossible choice: Perform controversial procedures on minors or face legal action from the state. That’s not healthcare policy. That’s coercion. And it sets a precedent that should terrify anyone who values medical independence and institutional freedom.

The federal government said stop or we’ll defund you. The state government said continue or we’ll sue you. And caught in the middle is a children’s hospital just trying to keep the lights on and kids alive.

That’s where we are in 2025. Welcome to the future of medicine in America’s bluest state.

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