President Donald Trump signed an executive order (EO) on January 28 blocking gender treatment for children in the United States.
The order, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” defunds government research and grants involving “chemical and surgical mutilation of children,” authorizes action against Medicare or Medicaid providers who participate in such treatments, stops the Department of Defense TRICARE and the federal government workers’ health care program from covering such procedures, protects whistleblowers, and prioritizes investigations into misleading claims about the treatments and into “sanctuary” states interfering with parental rights to promote the treatments.
All affected agencies have 60 days to report their progress in following the order.
‘Stain’ on the Nation
The order defines children as those under 19 years of age, and the phrase “chemical and surgical mutilation” to include puberty blockers, sex hormones, and surgical procedures that “transform an individual’s physical appearance to align with an identity that differs from his or her sex or that attempt to alter or remove an individual’s sexual organs to minimize or destroy their natural biological functions.”
The EO is a major shift from the Biden administration’s unabated support of what it termed “gender-affirming care.”
“Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions,” the order states. “This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”
Praise for President
Medical groups and child advocacy organizations welcomed the order.
“We applaud President Trump for fulfilling his promise to America’s families and taking these critical steps to protect children from harmful, experimental, and often irreversible medical procedures,” said Matt Sharp, senior counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom. “The president’s order affirms that the federal government is standing with de-transitioners and families hurt by gender transition drugs and surgeries.”
“The importance of President Trump’s executive order reestablishing the objective truth that there are only two sexes cannot be underestimated,” said Dr. Tim Millea, chair of the Catholic Medical Association’s Health Care Policy Committee. “In addition, that this action took place on the first day of his administration highlights its importance.”
Reversal of Biden Rule
The order directs the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to “promptly withdraw” HHS’s March 2, 2022 guidance document on gender-affirming care, civil rights, and patient privacy.
The Biden administration document stated, “attempts to restrict, challenge, or falsely characterize gender affirming care as abuse is dangerous and blocks[SK1] parents from making critical health care decisions for their children, creates a chilling effect on health care providers who are necessary to provide care for these youth, and ultimately negatively impacts the health and well-being of transgender and gender nonconforming youth.”
Trump’s EO is a “refreshing return to sanity,” said Sharp. “Not a single dollar should be spent to facilitate or push vulnerable kids towards experimental, often irreversible drugs and surgeries.”
Aligning with Science
The order criticizes the primary source used by supporters of child trans treatments, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), as lacking “scientific integrity.” The order states “agencies shall rescind or amend all policies that rely on WPATH guidance, including WPATH’s “Standards of Care Version 8.’”
The EO also orders the HHS Secretary to “publish a review of the existing literature on best practices for promoting the health of children who assert gender dysphoria, rapid-onset gender dysphoria, or other identity-based confusion.”
Trump’s order aligns the United States with other countries on the issue, says Sharp.
“Instead of being a global outlier, America will now ‘follow the science,’ like the U.K. and other European countries have done, to ensure that we are identifying safe and effective ways to help kids who experience distress over their biological sex,” Sharp said. “That includes supporting a legal remedy for those who have suffered at the hands of doctors who have pushed junk science on vulnerable kids.”
The practice of medicine should be guided by scientific facts in an objective and evidence-based process, says Millea.
“The rapidly growing data from multiple countries clearly demonstrates the lifelong harms of transgender interventions, particularly with children and adolescents,” said Millea. “It is past time for American organizations like the American Medical Association and American Academy of Pediatrics to end their ideological promotion of these misguided methods.”
‘Do Something for Them’
The Catholic Medical Association commended the president’s return to defining biological sex as female or male. The definition of biological sex is far-reaching, and Trump’s decision will increase compassionate care for those suffering from gender dysphoria, says Millea.
“Rather than subjecting American youth to the permanent damages of ‘gender transition,’ the emphasis should be on counseling and attention to mental health needs,” said Millea. “It is time to do something for them and stop doing something to them.”
Help for States
Trump’s order supports ongoing efforts in several states to enforce laws against invasive gender procedures for children, says Andrew Schlafly, general counsel for the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons.
“The EO encourages Congress to enact a new private right of action for children and their parents against medical professionals who perform transgender surgeries,” said Schlafly. “This EO urges a long statute of limitations, which would enable children to sue over this after they become adults.”
Ashley Bateman ([email protected]) writes from Virginia.
