The Trump administration has launched a sweeping effort to restrict gender-affirming care for minors, arguing that such treatment is unsafe and irreversible.
The new policy announcements from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) would sharply limit, and potentially end, access to puberty blockers, hormone therapy and related care for transgender children across the United States.
The administration also described these transition processes as being ‘sex-rejecting,’ which has triggered condemnation from both medical organisations and LGBTQ+ advocates, who warn the measures could strip vulnerable young people of essential healthcare and deepen existing mental health risks.
Moving To Tighter Access To Care
On Thursday, HHS said it would issue a rule-making process that could, in effect, prohibit hospitals enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid from providing gender-affirming care to minors. The Centres for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) claimed that the move was meant to stop what it terms as ‘unsafe, irreparable practises’ which they claim put the lives of children at risk.
The proposal also aims to reduce federal funding for such treatments by using the Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Programme (CHIP), which together finance about half of all children in America.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., acting HHS Secretary, said in response to the request of US President Donald Trump that the federal government would do all it could to end ‘unsafe’ practices that endanger the lives of children.
‘This administration will protect America’s most vulnerable,’ he said in a press statement. ‘Our children deserve better, and we are delivering on that promise.’
According to critics, this view ignores the opinion of large medical bodies and the real lives of transgender youth.
FDA Issues Warning Letters To Breast Binder Companies
The HHS, together with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), also indicated that it would issue warning letters to 12 companies that manufacture or sell breast binders to minors, in addition to policy changes.
‘Illegal marketing of these products for children is alarming, and the FDA will take further enforcement action such as import alerts, seizures, and injunctions if it continues,’ said FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H. in the statement.
These companies are accused of illegal marketing as their products are found to be medicinal treatments for gender dysphoria. Medical professionals acknowledge gender dysphoria as a valid case that demands compassionate treatment, in the case of a woman who experiences considerable distress because of the lack of correspondence between gender identity and assigned sex.
Kennedy said at a press conference on Thursday that the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Paediatrics promoted the falsehood that chemical and surgical sex-rejecting procedures were beneficial to children with gender dysphoria. ‘This is not medicine. It is malpractice.’
Backlash and Budget Cuts
The policy announcements are included in a larger initiative of the Trump administration to redefine the federal position in relation to transgender health problems.
Only a few days ago, the administration ended multimillion-dollar grants to the American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP) over concerns about the use of ‘identity-based language’ after the organisation criticised its vaccine policies.
Moreover, HHS is acting to address a policy change made in the Biden administration that made gender dysphoria a disability under federal law.
Make America Healthy Again
An offered amendment to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act will clarify that gender dysphoria is not a disability unless it is brought about by a physical disability, narrowing the scope of protection of transgender people.
Such suggestions have caused intense debate. Dr Jamila Perritt, an OB/GYN and the CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health, said, ‘Gender-affirming care is life-saving care.’
The rules that are proposed nowadays are a calculated and intentional assault on transgender young people and their families, along with the clinicians devoted to giving patients the necessary care.
Political Struggle in Congress
Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene introduced a bill which would criminalise any provider of gender-affirming care to minors. The democrats have criticised the bill with minimal prospects of making it through the Senate as the most radical anti-transgender laws ever to be proposed.
Democratic congressman Mark Takano, who is the chairperson of the Congressional Equality Caucus, said criminalising parents and providers is not only inhumane but unconstitutional. The legislation is a direct assault on the rights of parents to work with their children and their doctors to access the care that they require.
One other bill has been proposed by Republican Dan Crenshaw, which will ban Medicaid from financing gender-affirming treatments among minors. Both actions signify a further partisan rift in the rights of transgender individuals, and the detractors feared that these policies would harm the mental and physical health of youth at risk.
Disagreements in Medical Reasoning
Although the administration has been rhetorically correct, the medical community does not agree with the policies to a large extent. Most of the major medical bodies supported the idea that gender dysphoria should be classified as a disability, which was previously done by the Biden administration.
Earlier, the HHS published a review stating that evidence of gender-affirming care with minors has a very low level, which goes against the stance of these organisations. This review is being criticised because critics claim it distorts the scientific consensus and weakens the existing standards of care.
Originally published on IBTimes UK
