The Trump administration unveiled sweeping new rules Thursday that will cut off federal funding to hospitals that perform transgender procedures on minors, as part of a broader crackdown on what officials call medically harmful and ideologically driven practices targeting children.
Under the rules, the Department of Health and Human Services will bar hospitals that offer such procedures to anyone under 19 from participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs. Additionally, the changes will prevent the use of federal dollars from Medicaid’s Children’s Health Insurance Program to fund these treatments.
“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,” said an HHS official on a background press call.
Nearly all hospitals in the U.S. participate in Medicare and Medicaid, making the rule a significant deterrent. According to an HHS background document, the changes are intended to make sure “the U.S. government will not be in business with organizations that intentionally or unintentionally inflict permanent harm on children.”
The new rules will undergo a sixty-day comment period before taking effect. They are grounded in an internal HHS review which concluded that transgender medical interventions pose severe and often irreversible health risks to children.
“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,” the department wrote in its policy summary.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. signed a declaration affirming that medical professionals who perform these procedures are not in compliance with professionally recognized standards of care. The declaration formalized the department’s position based on the findings of its internal review.
Reinforcing that stance, Admiral Brian Christine, Assistant Secretary of the Public Health Service, issued a public health statement saying the evidence does not support the use of transgender procedures in children. Simultaneously, the HHS Office of Civil Rights released guidance clarifying that “policies preventing or limiting sex-rejecting procedures” do not violate existing nondiscrimination laws.
The Food and Drug Administration also weighed in, sending warning letters to 12 manufacturers of breast binders for what it called illegal marketing to children suffering from gender dysphoria. These products are often given to adolescent girls seeking a more masculine appearance. The letters direct the companies to bring their marketing practices into compliance with approved medical standards.
All of these moves stem from President Donald Trump’s executive order mandating that his administration cut off all support and funding for transgender medical procedures performed on minors.
Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of the organization Do No Harm, praised the administration’s decision.
“President Trump and HHS are taking another critical step to protect children from harmful gender ideology,” Goldfarb said. “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.”
The post Trump Admin To Strip All Federal Funding From Hospitals That Perform Trans Procedures On Kids appeared first on Real News Now.
About Author
