As the Trump administration forces pediatric transgender facilities to close, a new reality is becoming clear: It’s a game of whack-a-mole.
In Pasadena, California, an infamous pediatrician named Johanna Olson-Kennedy who provides transgender intervention procedures for children was forced to close her medical office at the end of September (as The Federalist reported), after a pro-trans parent corporation read the political climate and switched to an adults-only operation. It was the second time in two years Olson-Kennedy was driven out of business, as Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles closed her first practice in 2025.
The Pasadena office reopened a few days later, at the same address, with a new sign on the very same front door. (If you need to use the bathroom, that patients-only sign about using the key has yet to reappear.)
Image CreditChris Bray, The Federalist
This development comes at an unusually important moment, as California just changed the way it funds sex-rejecting procedures for minors, as of October 13. You can read a detailed discussion of those changes here, on the website of the California Department of Health Care Access and Information. Following recent federal guidance, California will no longer pay for pediatric gender mutilation through Medi-Cal, the state’s version of the federally funded but state-administered Medicaid and CHIP.
Ending federally funded sex-rejecting procedures, California is switching to a more limited grant program funded only with state dollars. The state legislature has budgeted three pools of money, totaling $66 million, that can be used to pay for sex-rejecting procedures, with $10 million specifically designated for doctors who butcher children.
Image CreditScreenshot
Defunded, pediatric transgender facilities are refunded. Closed, they reopen.
California has yet to distribute its new transgender funding, and is searching for a private third-party administrator to run the funding program. A spokesman for the California Department of Health Care Access and Information told The Federalist that Olson-Kennedy has not received any of the new state funding, because the program is not yet up and running.
Alongside the funding changes, the Trump administration is mounting an aggressive legal effort to close sex-rejecting facilities for children. That project follows President Trump’s January 28, 2025 executive order, “Protecting Children from Medical and Surgical Mutilation,” which committed the federal government to ending pediatric transgender procedures. Pressured, hospitals all over the country have agreed to close their pediatric sex-rejecting medical facilities.
Clearly, though, the example of Olson-Kennedy’s new Axiana Youth Care shows what happens next: Shuttered clinics that had mainstream medical ties just go independent, operating under the direct control of trans zealots who refuse to quit.
It’s unclear how any of that ends, and it’s unclear what transgender procedures for children Olson-Kennedy believes she can sustain in the current law enforcement climate. The Federalist asked the Department of Justice if it’s aware that Olson-Kennedy has opened a new facility, but hasn’t received a response. The Federalist also spent several days sending and resending a long list of questions to an email address on the Axiana Youth Care website, asking about topics like funding and the DOJ’s determination to close pediatric sex-rejecting centers. Axiana has not responded to The Federalist’s questions.
This will be the long moment when we find out if sex-rejecting medical procedures for children can be sustained or ended. What happens next?
Chris Bray is a senior correspondent at The Federalist and a former infantry sergeant in the U.S. Army. He has a history PhD from the University of California Los Angeles, not that it did him any good. He also posts on Substack, at "Tell Me How This Ends," here.