President Donald Trump took the biggest step yet towards dismantling the transgender industrial complex.
His executive order signed Tuesday cuts all federal funding for child sex changes, strips medical associations that promote the procedures of legitimacy and places the doctors behind them in legal jeopardy.
In a drastic shift from the extensive government support offered by the Biden administration, Trump’s order signals that institutions backing the “chemical and surgical mutilation of children” will find themselves in the crosshairs of federal law enforcement.
Uprooting Government Support For ‘Junk Science’
The order bans federal agencies from using the “junk science” of the World Association of Transgender Health (WPATH), a gender medicine organization that publishes clinical guidance called the Standards of Care version 8 (SOC-8), which are used throughout the medical community to inform clinical practice and insurance coverage.
For example, Pennsylvania’s state pediatric insurance plan directly cites WPATH as the basis for determining coverage of gender transition services. Many sex change providers including Seattle Children’s Gender clinic, Mayo Clinic, and Children’s Wisconsin Gender Health Clinic, reference WPATH on their websites.
Stating that WPATH “lacks scientific integrity,” the order directs federal agencies to “rescind or amend” all policies citing the SOC-8.
This could include HHS guidance like a document published in 2022 titled “Gender-Affirming Care and Young People” which gives a full throated recommendation of puberty blockers, cross sex hormones, and sex change surgeries, and directs readers to the WPATH SOC-8. The Trump administration will publish a review within 90 days of the best practices aimed at helping gender dysphoric children after review of available literature, according to the executive order.
Stripping Funding
Trump’s executive action promises to cut all federal funding of child chemical and surgical mutilation through regulatory actions involving federal programs including Medicare and Medicaid programs and section 1557 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
Section 1557 is a non-discrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act. Both the Obama and Biden administrations strong-armed the entire medical community into embracing gender ideology and sex-change interventions by redefining the discrimination policy to include sexual orientation and “gender identity.”
This regulatory change prevented insurance companies from categorically denying coverage for sex-change interventions, considering such bans a form of discrimination, which forced insurance plans to offer coverage for sex-change services.
The order explicitly directs HHS to withdraw its “Notice and Guidance on Gender Affirming Care, Civil Rights, and Patient Privacy” document, which instructs parents of children denied transgender procedures to file a civil rights complaint.
Data obtained from series of public record requests made by the DCNF uncovered that from January 2018 to September 2023, 16 states spent more than $165 million funding “gender transition services” — including puberty blockers, hormones, and sex-change surgeries — with more than $45 million spent on interventions for children 17 and younger.
Trump’s order not only prohibits tax dollars from directly funding sex change procedures, it also removes research and education grants from medical schools and hospitals engaged in pediatric gender medicine.
Increased Legal Liability
Trump’s directives to the Department of Justice (DOJ) will increase legal liability for doctors and clinics, holding those who harm children through promoting transgender procedures accountable.
Under the order, enforcement of existing protections against female genital mutilation are to be prioritized in partnership with state attorneys general and other law enforcement.
“It’s great to have a President that enforces the law and wants to partner with states to protect our children, unlike the last administration that pushed the radical transgender ideology,” Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey told the DCNF.
Bailey opened an investigation into the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital in 2023 after a whistleblower raised concern that doctors were providing hormones to children with minimal screening and without parental consent.
Consumer protections for patients are also strengthened by a direction to prioritize investigations of entities that “may be misleading the public about the long-term side effects of chemical and surgical mutilation” under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. The act enables the DOJ to bring civil actions or criminal charges for misleading consumers.
“President Trump is right to encourage the investigation of this off-label usage of drugs being prescribed to minors because we know that the effects of it are very dangerous,” Mark Trammell, executive director and general counsel at the Center for American Liberty, told the DCNF. Several of his detransitioner clients, including Chloe Cole, are seeking remedies in court for injuries caused by cross-sex hormones and surgeries.
In recordings obtained by the DCNF, WPATH doctors acknowledged the drastic consequences of hormone therapy, including potentially rendering children infertile.
.@realDonaldTrump latest executive order directs the Attorney General to work w/ Congress to protect children from transgender surgeries that mutilate their bodies. Today I will reintroduce my legislation to allow victims of these surgeries to SUE the doctors who harmed them
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) January 29, 2025
Trump’s order also directs the DOJ to consult with Congress to enable children “whose healthy body parts have been damaged” and their parents to bring lawsuits by creating a private right of action. Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley already reintroduced on Wednesday legislation allowing victims of transgender surgeries to sue the doctors who harmed them.
Democratic states that have passed policies declaring themselves “refuge” states where youth are guaranteed access to transgender procedures also face liability, as the order directs the DOJ to prioritize investigations of states that strip “custody from parents who support the healthy development of their own children.” Enforcement may be brought under the Parental Kidnapping Prevention Act, which prevents states from changing custody determinations made by a court in another state.
In Minnesota, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz signed a law allowing courts to take “temporary emergency jurisdiction” of children present in the state who have been “unable to obtain gender-affirming health care.”
Featured Image Credit: The Trump White House
