HHS unleashes sweeping crackdown on child 'sex-rejecting procedures,' threatens hospital, Medicaid funding

HHS is rolling out a series of policy updates and regulatory actions that effectively would defund hospitals that provide gender transition procedures, according to an HHS official. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rolled out policy proposals that would bar hospitals from carrying out performing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and certain surgeries on patients under 18 as a "condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs." The majority of U.S. hospitals participate in Medicare and Medicaid, according to HHS. 

"On my watch, HHS will stand for radical transparency and informed consent," said Kennedy. "We follow the evidence. We employ gold standard science. We honor the moral obligation to do no harm. There is divine worth in every person. It shines most brightly in our children that was commanded us to protect them." 

The November report was an update to HHS' May report that reviewed the evidence and best practices for children with gender dysphoria, which was criticized by a handful of medical groups for not identifying the study's authors and allegedly misrepresenting a medical consensus on the matter. 

In another Thursday crackdown, Kennedy signed a declaration that such procedures on children do not meet professional medical standards, based on the study, which warns "practitioners who perform sex-rejecting procedures on minors would be deemed out of compliance with those standards."

"They betrayed their Hippocratic Oath to do no harm," Kennedy said Thursday. "So-called gender-affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people. This is not medicine. It is malpractice. We're done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the well-being of children." 

The Food and Drug Administration additionally announced Thursday, as part of the crackdown on trans medical issues for minors, that it sent warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers behind the "illegal marketing of breast binders to children." 

At the civil rights level, HHS is moving to undo a Biden-era effort to treat gender dysphoria as a disability under federal law. A newly proposed revision to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 would clarify that the definitions of "disability" and "individual with a disability" exclude "gender dysphoria" that is not the result of a physical impairment. 

"The Biden-era amendment is designated gender dysphoria as a disability, serve the commercial interests of a predatory, multibillion dollar industry that betrayed the original intention of those laws engendered widespread public resentment against those laws among the American people, and discredit the statutes in the public mind," Kennedy said during the press conference Thursday. 

The announcement is expected to be met with pushback from left-wing Democrats, who have continued championing "gender-affirming care" for kids. 

Transgender issues became a political football toward the end of Trump's first administration and into the Biden administration, which repeatedly declared support for the trans community and trans youth. In November, 130 Members of Congress, for example, filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court in November for a pair of cases focused on transgender students playing on a school sports team opposite their biological sex.  

Supporters of medical procedures aimed at altering a child's sex argue preventing such medical care can lead to depression and anxiety, and even suicide and must be protected. 

Missouri Republican Rep. Bob Onder, a physician who joined Kennedy for the Thursday announcement, celebrated the the policy proposals in comment to Fox Digital. 

"The dark days of subjecting children like Chloe Cole to irreversible harm that they cannot consent to are over," he told Fox Digital, referring to Cole, who detransitioned and now speaks out against youth trans medical procedures.   

"Secretary Kennedy's announcement today will protect children, their families, and the majority of doctors who want to uphold their promise to 'do no harm'.  I thank President Trump and Secretary Kennedy for their leadership on this crucial issue. The Administration is banning all hospitals, clinics, and providers that accept federal funding from performing these experimental and dangerous procedures on children. This will effectively end the practice of chemical and surgical mutilation in the United States," he continued. 

The president and the Make America Healthy Commission he established earlier in 2025 have doubled down that there are only two biological sexes, including Trump signing an executive order declaring the U.S. only recognizes male and female sexes while also ending a "radical and wasteful" diversity, equity and inclusion program within the government.