HHS Acts To Protect Children From Sex-Rejecting Procedures

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced it has begun the federal rulemaking process to end what it called “sex-rejecting procedures” on gender-confused children, such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and mutilating surgical interventions. The announcement came just one day after the U.S. House of Representatives narrowly passed the “Protect Children’s Innocence Act” 216-211 that would criminalize administering these procedures on minors with gender confusion, with penalties including fines or up to 10 years in prison, or both. The bill now advances to the Senate.

The forthcoming HHS actions stem from President Donald Trump’s January 2025 executive order, “Protecting Children From Chemical And Surgical Mutilation,” which directed the HHS to stop the sex-rejecting procedures on children that cause irreversible harm. These procedures expose children to “irreversible damage, including infertility, impaired sexual function, diminished bone density, altered brain development, and other irreversible physiological effects,” reads an HHS statement citing its peer-reviewed, 409-page pediatric gender study released in November 2025.

“This is not medicine; it is malpractice,” said HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr at a press conference. “Sex-rejecting procedures are neither safe nor effective treatment for children with gender dysphoria.”

The proposed HHS rule would bar all hospitals nationwide participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs from performing sex-rejecting procedures on gender-confused children as a condition of receiving federal funding or reimbursements. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) released a notice of proposed rulemaking that is subject to a 60-day comment period ending February 17, 2026. After the comment period, the CMS can then establish new health and safety standards to protect children in Medicare- and Medicaid-participating hospitals.

The HHS also announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will issue warning letters to the 12 manufacturers and retailers of chest binders to discourage marketing these breast cancer-recovery devices to treat gender confusion. Additionally, the HHS will take steps to undo Biden administration actions and remove gender dysphoria from the list of disabilities that are protected by law from discrimination. The National Institutes of Health will also stop funding for gender intervention research.

"Unscientific medical abuse that violates every tenet of medical ethics"

Chloe Cole, a victim of these radical, irreversible procedures, gave her testimony at the HHS press conference. Now 21, Cole underwent medical mutilation procedures between the ages of 12 and 16 pushed on her and her parents by doctors when she struggled with gender confusion. The procedures included hormone blockers and a double mastectomy. Cole now speaks out for the thousands of children whose lifelong health is being compromised. She noted she will never be able to breastfeed her children and that her body has been irreparably masculinized by “ideologically driven medical experimentation.”

Cole tearfully declared that gender interventions are not health care but are rather “unscientific medical abuse that violates every tenet of medical ethics.”

“This ideology is festering at an unimaginable scale within our hospital systems, our culture, our communities and to many within our own families,” said Cole. “There are tears that I don't show the world…there's grief, every single day, I carry with me silently.”

Cole also noted that “detransitioners” like her are largely ignored by the same doctors, clinics, and medical systems perpetrating these harms and that there is no medical infrastructure to help reverse them.

CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz also spoke at the press conference and condemned gender ideology as a “dishonest narrative” that experiments on “children like lab mice.” While Dr. Oz confirmed that there are no standards of care for reversing sex-rejecting procedures, he stated that CMS will look at altering billing codes to streamline what medical treatments can be offered, if any, to help “fix kids.”

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “We commend HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for protecting children from medical malpractice. It is impossible for people to change their birth sex, and these barbaric practices need to be stopped. The medical profession needs to return to their Hippocratic Oath of ‘do no harm,’ and to treat mental health issues with counseling rather than sterilization and mutilation.”

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