Patriot Brief
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Rules proposed: HHS announced regulations that would block hospitals receiving Medicare or Medicaid funds from performing transgender procedures on minors.
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Medical leaders speak: Top federal health officials cited risks including infertility, bone loss and psychological harm.
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Personal testimony shared: Detransitioner Chloe Cole described permanent damage from procedures she underwent as a minor.
The gloves are officially off. In a sweeping announcement that signals a major shift in federal health policy, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared that the era of taxpayer-funded transgender procedures for children may be coming to an end. Calling so-called “gender-affirming care” for minors a medical failure rather than a breakthrough, Kennedy accused the medical establishment of sacrificing children on the altar of ideology. Backed by top federal health officials and emotional testimony from those harmed, the message from Washington was blunt. This administration says it is done experimenting on kids and done paying for it.
Today, @SecKennedy signed a declaration stating that sex-rejecting treatments on children do not meet professionally recognized standards of health care. pic.twitter.com/5gaLhzQBCY
— HHS (@HHSGov) December 18, 2025
Christian Post reports:
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Thursday that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is taking steps to push back against what he described as “sex-rejecting” transgender procedures for minors.
“So-called ‘gender-affirming care’ has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people,” Kennedy said during a roughly hour-long press conference. “This is not medicine; it is malpractice.”
Kennedy said the proposed HHS rules, which are subject to a 60-day comment period, would bar hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid from performing transgender procedures on children, citing risks of irreversible harm such as infertility, impaired sexual function, bone density loss and altered brain development.
“Sex-rejecting procedures are neither safe nor effective treatment for children with gender dysphoria,” he said.
The presser also featured remarks from HHS Deputy Secretary Jim O’Neill, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz, FDA Commissioner Martin Makary, Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brian Christine, National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya and Chloe Cole, a prominent detransitioner who has testified about her story before on Capitol Hill.
For years, critics warned that politics had replaced medicine when it came to children and gender ideology. With this move, the Trump administration is making its position unmistakably clear. Protecting kids now comes before protecting narratives, and the bill for ideological experiments is no longer being picked up by American taxpayers.
Photo credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images