Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announces HHS crackdown on ‘sex-rejecting’ surgeries for minors: ‘Malpractice’
December 19, 2025
U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has announced new proposed rules for his agency that would bar hospitals from performing irreversible sex-change procedures on children.
The Christian Post reports that Sec. Kennedy made the announcement Thursday during an hour-long press conference that featured remarks from several federal agency heads as well as Chloe Cole, a prominent detransitioner who has testified about her story before on Capitol Hill.
Kennedy stated, “So-called ‘gender-affirming care’ has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people,” later adding, “This is not medicine; it is malpractice. Sex-rejecting procedures are neither safe nor effective treatment for children with gender dysphoria.
The proposed rules would prohibit hospitals participating in Medicaid or Medicare from performing transgender procedures on children, pointing to risks of irreversible harm such as infertility, impaired sexual function, bone density loss and altered brain development.
According to the Christian Post, the press conference came just one day after lawmakers in the House passed legislation banning transgender procedures for minors and on the same day a separate bill passed that bans Medicaid reimbursement for such procedures.
Chloe Cole, an activist who detransitioned after undergoing so-called “gender affirming” procedures as a teenager who struggled with gender dysphoria, offered her own testimony regarding what the medical industry did to her.
Cole stated, “”I represent a community of people who have been harmed by these procedures, and yet are largely ignored by the same doctors, the same clinics and medical systems that harmed them.”
“There’s grief, every single day, I carry with me silently. The only thing in the world that makes me angry is knowing that this is continuing to happen to children all across the United States and throughout the globe,” she added.
The proposed HHS rules are subject to a 60-day comment period.
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