HHS Proposes Sweeping Ban on Gender Affirming Care for Minors Under Trump Executive Order

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Thursday a series of proposed regulatory actions to implement President Donald Trump’s executive order directing HHS to end the practice of sex-rejecting procedures on children. Speaking at a Newsmax news conference, Kennedy stated doctors “assume a solemn obligation to protect children,” but argued that medical groups have promoted “needless and irreversible” interventions for minors with gender dysphoria.

The sweeping proposals represent the most significant moves by the Trump administration to restrict puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgical interventions for transgender children. Kennedy characterized so-called “gender-affirming care” for children as “not medicine” but “malpractice,” and asserted that HHS is “done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the well-being of children.”

According to an HHS press release, the department’s actions include two new Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) notices of proposed rulemaking. The first proposal would bar hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid from performing sex-rejecting procedures on children under 18 as a condition of participation. A second proposal would prohibit federal Medicaid funding for such procedures for individuals under 18, extending the restriction to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for those under 19.

HHS also announced that Kennedy signed a declaration finding these interventions do not meet “professionally recognized standards of health care,” with practitioners deemed out of compliance under this declaration. Additionally, HHS stated it is issuing warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers over the “illegal marketing of breast binders to children” for the purpose of treating gender dysphoria.

The administration further indicated efforts to reverse a Biden-era attempt to include gender dysphoria within the definition of disability under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, aiming to reassure recipients of HHS funds that policies limiting these procedures do not violate federal disability nondiscrimination requirements.

Kennedy framed the regulatory actions as part of Trump’s broader child-protection initiative. The executive order directs HHS to use regulatory and sub-regulatory tools—particularly around Medicare and Medicaid standards—to end what the order calls “chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”

While the regulations are not yet final and must undergo public comment and litigation scrutiny, they threaten access to gender-affirming care in nearly two dozen states where such treatments remain legal and funded by Medicaid. More than half of U.S. states already restrict or ban gender-changing care.