On February 9th, 2026, a number of families in our community received a notice from Baystate Health, informing them that their staff will no longer prescribe gender affirming medications for patients under the age of eighteen.

Baystate is urging affected patients to transfer care to Transhealth, a much smaller practice in a different county, instead of continuing longstanding relationships with trusted providers.

The letters sent to families cite “the evolving healthcare regulatory landscape” as the basis for the change -- but gender affirming care for minors is legal in the state of Massachusetts. The Trump administration has proposed draft rules that would cut medicare and medicaid funding to hospitals that prescribe gender affirming medication to minors: However these rules will face legal challenges and amendments, a potentially lengthy process which may result in them ultimately not taking effect at all, during which time Baystate can and should continue to provide the care that trans children need. By complying in advance, Baystate is nullifying the work people are doing to combat these proposed laws, violating existing anti-discrimination laws, and violating the policies of Massachusetts.

The needs of trans youth are not political inconveniences to be jettisoned as soon as the winds change. They are matters of life and death.

As socialists, we are committed to trans liberation and children’s liberation, and we know that these commitments are intertwined. Our bodies are not property. Children, like trans adults, have a right to autonomy, self expression, and medical care. Only through the abolition of patriarchy and capitalism, and establishing systems of medical care that respect autonomy and treat us as full human beings can we truly be free.

We demand that our elected officials fight to block these rules from taking effect, and require Baystate to follow Massachusetts law. We call on hospital administrators, medical professionals and staff to refuse to pre-emptively comply, and instead, continue caring for trans youth. And we ask our community to apply pressure in all manners to let these institutions know that trans children are not disposable.