Federal officials threatened to strip a children's hospital's Medicare and Medicaid funding unless it stopped a form of care that Connecticut state law already protects, and the hospital caved.

The Justice Department announced Connecticut Children's Medical Center agreed to stop gender-affirming care for transgender minors, becoming the third hospital to settle with the Trump administration under this pressure. As part of the deal, the hospital will pay a penalty and set aside $500,000 for people who say they were harmed by care they previously received.

This settlement lands while transgender patients are already suing Connecticut Children's for the same issue. Patients filed a lawsuit in December arguing the hospital broke Connecticut state law when it abruptly stopped their care last year, after President Trump's executive order cutting federal support for the treatment. Some of those patients were already mid-treatment when care stopped, with no transition plan for their ongoing medical needs.

"The Department of Justice will stop at nothing to protect America's children," Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward said, according to a report by Jacob Ogles for The Advocate.

Whatever you believe about this care, a state's own law and its own courts, not a federal funding threat, should decide whether a hospital can keep treating patients already under its care. Connecticut Children's Medical Center's leadership and Connecticut Attorney General William Tong have the power to stand behind Connecticut law instead of a settlement reached under coercion.

Sign the petition to demand Connecticut Children's Medical Center and state leaders protect existing patients and uphold Connecticut law, before more hospitals fold under the same pressure.