Planned Parenthood’s Arizona branch will resume providing gender-affirming healthcare to transgender patients. The chapter had previously paused the treatments in response to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sending out a memo warning federally funded healthcare institutions against providing gender-affirming care.

The Arizona branch faced public pressure after news publications began reporting on its decision to end trans-related healthcare. Patients receiving gender treatment at the branch told news outlets they had received voicemails late on Friday, April 11, informing them that their upcoming appointments were being cancelled.

One of these patients, a 23-year-old trans woman from Mesa, Arizona, recounted receiving this call to the trans journalism website Erin in the Morning.

“We are hoping that this is a temporary pause for the next week,” a branch representative said in a voicemail to the patient. They told her the office would reach out upon being able to reschedule.

Planned Parenthood Arizona added a banner to its website explaining the situation. In the explanation, the branch said it had been sent a letter from the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) directing them not to provide gender-affirming care services using Medicaid funding. In response, the Arizona branch decided it would indefinitely discontinue gender treatment for trans patients.

The Arizona branch seems to be the only Planned Parenthood branch currently to pause its gender treatment as a result of this threat. The reported cancellations caused the branch to face public backlash, as many trans people, especially those in rural communities, rely on Planned Parenthood to access their healthcare. 

NPR interviewed various representatives from Planned Parenthood last August after an arsonist attacked one of their facilities in Knoxville, Tennessee. In this interview, they discussed the impact that closing its facilities would have on trans patients.

Dr Bhavik Kumar, the medical director of primary and trans care at Planned Parenthood Gulf Coast, told NPR that over 35,000 patients nationwide had sought gender-affirming hormone replacement therapy in 2021.

By Tuesday, April 15, the Arizona facility rescinded its decision and updated its website to feature a new banner that reads: “Planned Parenthood Arizona deeply values and is dedicated to the LGBTQIA+ community, which includes our patients, supporters, and staff. We recognize how critical it is for our patients to have certainty to access essential services, including Gender Affirming Care.”

“After a brief pause, we are pleased to announce the continuation of our Gender Affirming Care services,” the message continued. “This pause occurred out of an abundance of caution after threats to the Medicaid services in our state.”

“The onslaught of attacks on sexual and reproductive health care services in Arizona and across the country is alarming and is a clear, continued effort to shut down Planned Parenthood,” the message added. “This will not be the last threat that aims to deny people medically sound, essential health care, needlessly putting them at risk and unnecessarily creating chaos and confusion around the accessibility of services.”

After the president signed his executive order “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” which threatened to deny federal funding to hospitals providing gender-affirming treatment to individuals under 19 years of age, many hospitals located in sanctuary states for trans people began complying in advance by ending their trans-related healthcare offerings.

Since then, a federal judge has issued a nationwide block on the order’s enforcement, meaning that the federal government cannot withhold funding to hospitals providing gender affirming care. There is very little information to verify that the decision has since been appealed as of writing. 

However, it is worth noting that the presidential administration is facing criminal contempt charges for defying a court order to cancel a deportation flight. It remains to be seen if administration officials will attempt to defy the court’s ruling against the president’s ban on gender-affirming care.