PITTSBURGH — Five teens and children who say they were forced off of their gender-affirming care treatment plans when UPMC Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh ceased such treatment for those 18 and younger earlier this year filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, alleging the denial amounts to sex- and disability-based discrimination.

The sealed complaint was filed Tuesday by the Women's Law Project and Philadelphia-based Berger Montague on behalf of five patients who'd previously received gender-affirming care at Children's Hospital: Three adolescents who are under 18 and represented by their parents, in addition to two 18-year-old patients.

Attorneys said the complaint alleges the hospital continues to offer the same treatments, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, to cisgender youth, or children who are not transgender.

UPMC stopped offering certain gender-affirming services — including hormone therapy and puberty blockers — earlier this year, citing the potential for prosecution.

The health care provider had already curtailed such treatments months earlier after President Donald Trump signed an executive order restricting gender care for anyone under 19, though UPMC initially grandfathered in young patients with existing prescriptions. A June Supreme Court decision upholding a Tennessee ban on care for minors prompted UPMC to stop offering certain services altogether.

"Thanks to UPMC's cowardice and willingness to pre-comply with the Trump administration's bullying and cruelty, my child was forced off of medically necessary, safe, evidence-based, life-saving care," the parent of one transgender child said in a statement.

A UPMC spokesperson said in a statement that the health care provider "remains steadfast" in its commitment to providing care for all patients.

"As we continue to monitor any executive branch memos, directives, subpoenas and other guidance from the Trump administration, these actions have made it abundantly clear that our clinicians can no longer provide certain types of gender-affirming care without risk of criminal prosecution," according to the statement, including "restrictions on puberty blockers and hormone therapy" for youth under 19.

The spokesperson said UPMC will continue to provide behavioral support and other care "within the bounds of the law."

"We empathize deeply with the patients and families affected by these ongoing changes."

The term "gender-affirming care" is used to describe many approaches that transgender people use to align their sex to their gender identity. These can range from makeup, haircuts and clothing to medical interventions such as puberty blockers, hormones and surgeries.

Major U.S. medical institutions, including the American Academy of Pediatrics, have guidance classifying such treatments as safe and, in many cases, reversible.

The attorneys representing the patients and their families say UPMC's actions constitute discrimination against trans youth not only based on sex, which includes gender identity and expression, but also based on disability in denying care to children diagnosed with gender dysphoria.

Among those represented in the complaint: The parents of a 12-year-old transgender daughter, who "is universally known socially as a girl." Attorneys said the girl's medical treatment was "abruptly terminated," and she was given a step-down schedule that forced her off of her medication.

Attorneys said others include the parents of a 13-year-old transgender son whose four-year treatment plan was terminated, and the mother of a 15-year-old transgender son whose treatment was stopped after they moved to the Pittsburgh area to be closer to gender dysphoria treatment.

Also represented are two 18-year-olds: A transgender man and woman who attorneys say were forced off of their medication after more than two years of successful treatment.

"Gender-affirming care is legal in Pennsylvania. Discrimination based on sex and disability status is not," Annmarie Pinarski, an attorney with the Women's Law Project, said in a statement.

"While federal threats and demands put hospital administrators in a difficult situation," she said, "it is not more challenging or important than the distressing experience our clients and similarly situated patients have been forced into after being abruptly denied critical health care."

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