The steps include a declaration from the health secretary that says the procedures are neither safe nor effective for children with gender dysphoria.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and other officials on Dec. 18 announced new steps they’re taking to cut down on breast removal and other “sex-rejecting” procedures for children.
Kennedy signed a declaration stating that “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.” Those procedures include vaginoplasties, or the creation of vaginas for males, and drugs such as puberty blockers, he said.
“This declaration is a clear directive to providers to follow the science, and the overwhelming body of evidence [that] these procedures hurt, not help, children,” Kennedy said at a press conference in Washington.
He pointed to a report from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that analyzed procedures and treatments for gender dysphoria and concluded that many of them carry the risk of significant harms, including infertility and a loss in bone density. The report recommended psychotherapy as an alternative.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will issue two new proposed rules. One would bar hospitals that participate in Medicare and Medicaid from performing the procedures, and another would prohibit federal money from funding them.
Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator of the HHS division, said at the briefing that 53 percent of children are covered under federal insurance.
“We’re not going to let taxpayer money go to hurt these children,” he said.
Institutions can profit enormously from the procedures, Oz said. He cited a 2022 paper that found a vaginoplasty costs about $60,000, and a similar procedure to construct a “penis” runs at $148,540.
HHS is also moving to reverse the previous administration’s attempt to have gender dysphoria added to the definition of disability in federal law. It plans to issue a proposed rule telling recipients of federal funds that policies limiting the procedures do not violate non-discrimination requirements.
Drugs and other transgender-related treatments and procedures used by hospitals and doctors for children with gender dysphoria, or confusion over their gender, include drugs that block puberty and cross-sex hormones.
