We Support Gender Affirming Care in the Northland!
— The Issue —
Several impacted families have informed us that Essentia Health, based in Duluth (MN) has instructed its providers to stop providing necessary and evidence-based gender affirming care for their pediatric patients. Patients were given no prior notice regarding the cessation of their care and, as far as we are aware, are not being referred to other care providers. To date, we are not aware of any official statements from Essentia Health on this issue. And we know that other clinics and hospitals in Minnesota have paused or are ending their provision of gender affirming care, in order to pre-comply with the federal government’s fight to end this care nationwide.
In response, we’ve brought together a multi disciplinary team of doctors, nurses, mental healthcare professionals, community health advocates, researchers, legal folks, and more. Our goal is to respond to this attack on our community’s healthcare here in Minnesota, by making sure every community member and family is cared for and supported through this challenging time, and that they can access the lifesaving healthcare that they need.
And we need your help!
Have you or a youth in your care lost access to gender affirming care?
We have created a survey to better understand how restrictions on gender affirming care are affecting youth and their families in our community. Survey responses will help inform our team’s advocacy and support efforts.
We have also created a petition for individual community members, as well as allied organizations and businesses, to sign in support of gender affirming care. Together, we demand that medically necessary gender affirming care be made (or remain) available for pediatric patients and their families in the Northland, by all healthcare systems in our region.