The Trump administration rolled out new rules on Thursday that will defund hospitals that perform transgender procedures on children and penalize doctors who administer those procedures.
The Department of Health and Human Services posted rules that will bar hospitals that offer transgender procedures to minors from participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs. The rules will also prohibit federal funding of Medicaid’s Children’s Health Insurance Program from going toward transgender procedures on those under 19 years of age.
“Collectively, these actions will ensure that the federal government in no way funds directly gender-transition procedures on minors and also does not fund facilities that perform these procedures on minors,” an HHS official said on a background call attended by The Daily Wire.
“Nearly all U.S. hospitals participate in Medicare and Medicaid, and this action is designed to ensure that the U.S. government will not be in business with organizations that intentionally or unintentionally inflict permanent harm on children,” an HHS background document on the announcement said.
There will be a sixty-day comment period on the proposed regulations before they take effect. The actions were rooted in an HHS review of transgender procedures that found they had harmful impacts on children’s health.
“Sex-rejecting procedures on children — which include puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical operations — cause irreversible damage, including infertility, impaired sexual function, diminished bone density, altered brain development, and other irreversible physiological effects,” HHS said.
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. also signed a declaration that medical professionals who perform transgender procedures are out of compliance with professionally recognized standards of health care. The declaration summarized the HHS review of the procedures.
In line with that declaration, Assistant Secretary for HHS Public Health Service, Admiral Brian Christine, signed a public health message stating that the evidence does not support transgender procedures. The HHS Office of Civil Rights also put forth a rule saying “policies preventing or limiting sex-rejecting procedures” do not violate nondiscrimination laws.
Christmas Sale – Get 40% off New DailyWire+ Annual Memberships
Additionally, the FDA issued warning letters to 12 manufacturers of breast binders “for illegal marketing of breast binders to children for the purposes of treating gender dysphoria.” Breast binders have been given to young girls who want to have a more masculine-looking chest. The letters inform the companies that they must take action to come back into compliance with the approved use of the binders.
The actions were taken as a result of President Donald Trump’s executive order that directed his administration to take action end all support and funding for transgender procedures on children.
The move was praised by Stanley Goldfarb, the chair of the organization Do No Harm.
“President Trump and HHS are taking another critical step to protect children from harmful gender ideology,” he told The Daily Wire. “The proposed rule – banning hospitals from performing sex change interventions on minors as a condition for Medicare and Medicaid participation – is common sense, evidence-based, and morally imperative. Many so-called gender clinics have already begun to close as the truth about the risks and long-term harms about these drugs and surgeries on minors have been exposed.”
.png)
.png)
