Federal Officials Act to Protect Children from Sex-Change Procedures

The week before Christmas, federal officials announced steps to protect children from sex-change surgeries, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said it would propose a series of regulatory actions to protect children from these dangerous procedures.

Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., issued an official declaration, saying:

Sex-rejecting procedures for children and adolescents are neither safe nor effective as a treatment modality for gender dysphoria, gender incongruence, or other related disorders in minors, and therefore, fail to meet professional recognized standards of health care. For the purposes of this declaration, “sex rejecting procedures” means pharmaceutical or surgical interventions, including puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and surgeries such as mastectomies, vaginoplasties, and other procedures, that attempt to align an individual’s physical appearance or body with an asserted identity that differs from the individual’s sex.

The federal Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) will also release a notice of proposed rulemaking to prevent hospitals from receiving Medicaid and Medicare funds if they perform sex-rejecting procedures on children.

All of this is really good news.

Public health experts and policymakers in the U.S., the U.K., Sweden, Finland, and other nations have found that science simply does not support giving puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones to kids. These drugs and procedures carry serious risks — including infertility, sexual dysfunction, impaired bone density, and cardiovascular problems.

Whistleblowers have come forward to testify about how they were rushed through gender transitions as children without understanding the procedures’ risks, consequences, or alternatives.

Today we know pro-LGBT activists and medical organizations have been citing each other’s work in a circular pattern for years, manufacturing a fake consensus to support their agenda.

For the past 12 months, federal officials have consistently worked to protect children from these dangerous procedures.

Last year, President Trump issued an executive order prohibiting federal funding from being used for sex-change procedures on kids, and the federal government is expected to propose new rules that could help protect children from sex-change procedures nationwide.

Over the summer, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced a public inquiry into whether U.S. doctors and clinics may have deceived parents and children about the risks of these procedures. The U.S. Department of Justice also subpoenaed doctors and medical facilities involved in performing sex-change procedures on minors.

In September, the U.S. Department of Justice sent Congress the federal Victims of Chemical or Surgical Mutilation Act. The proposed federal law would generally prevent doctors, hospitals, and clinics from performing sex-change surgeries on children or giving them puberty blockers or cross-sex hormones.

In 2021, lawmakers in Arkansas passed the Save Adolescents from Experimentation (SAFE) Act. This good law generally prohibits doctors from performing sex-change procedures on children or giving them puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones. The SAFE Act was upheld in federal court last year and is protecting children in Arkansas right now.

It’s good to see federal officials taking serious steps to protect children from sex-rejecting procedures.

Articles appearing on this website are written with the aid of Family Council’s researchers and writers.