New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani's administration is entering two contracts totaling $8.9 million to give minors puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. The New York Post reported it on 6 October 2026.
The city Department of Health and Mental Hygiene named the vendors: Callen-Lorde and the Nonprofit Organization for Philanthropic Initiatives. The contracts run 2027–29.
The department's public notice says: "This includes the prescription and administration of puberty-blockers and hormone replacement therapy to all minor patients for whom such services are medically necessary based on the prevailing standards of care." It also says: "Services will be performed by qualified medical providers with current New York State licensure, and will be provided consistent with state laws governing parental consent."
The federal Department of Justice has challenged these sex-rejecting procedures for minors as medically dangerous and illegal. Critics say the city is trying to circumvent the federal ban.
NYU Langone and Mount Sinai agreed to end pediatric sex-rejecting procedures for minors under that Justice Department scrutiny. They faced losing federal research grants and Medicaid and Medicare funding.
The Department of Health said the contracts were a response to "escalating federal attacks" from the Trump administration.
New York State Conservative Party Chairman Gerard Kassar said: "They're making an ideological decision instead of a medical decision." He also said: "They're trying to pull a fast one. New York City thinks it is its own national government. It further isolates us from the rest of the country." Kassar believes such treatment should not be administered without parental consent.
Some 27 states have passed laws banning or limiting sex-rejecting surgeries for minors, according to KFF. Colorado voters will decide in November on a ballot measure on whether to become the 28th state to outlaw such surgeries for anyone under 18.
The American Society of Plastic Surgeons recommends "that surgeons delay gender-related breast/chest, genital, and facial surgery until a patient is at least 19 years old." In a February statement, ASPS said "the natural course of pediatric gender dysphoria remains poorly understood."
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