Groups applaud HHS for ending taxpayer-funded child sex change procedures

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(The Center Square) – The Department of Health and Human Services’ announcement that it will end taxpayer-funded child sex change procedures by terminating Medicaid and CHIP coverage for such interventions as puberty blockers and more has met with approval from organizations working to protect children from identity politics. 

Chairman of medical watchdog Do No Harm Dr. Stanley Goldfarb told The Center Square: “We applaud the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid for taking such a critical step toward prohibiting the use of taxpayer dollars on harmful and irreversible sex-rejecting surgeries on minors.”

The Trump administration “made a commitment to support evidence-based medicine, and ending federal funding for experimental gender pseudoscience is a down payment on that promise to the American people,” Goldfarb said.

“Do No Harm will continue to support these efforts by producing high-quality research exposing the lack of evidence to support sex-rejecting interventions in children, and we are hopeful the proposed rule will lead to the necessary safeguards,” Goldfarb said.

Similarly, executive director of parental rights advocate the American Parents Coalition Alleigh Marré told The Center Square “evidence continues to mount that allowing children to undergo irreversible sex-change procedures is dangerous to their long-term health and wellness.”

“It is good to see public officials take this evidence seriously and stop taxpayer dollars from being used for these dangerous procedures,” Marré said.

“Unfortunately, there is more work to be done, as organizations such as the ... American Academy of Pediatrics continue to promote transgender ideology to children and normalize the idea that biology can be changed,” Marré said. 

“It is imperative we protect our children from these dangerous ideologies,” Marré said.

The Department for Health and Human Services (HHS) said in a press release that effective Oct. 13, Medicare and CHIP will no longer fund sex-rejecting procedures on children such as puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical operations.

When reached for comment, the HHS press office said that the decision to “protect children from sex-rejecting procedures” follows “a review of national and international research that identified significant evidence gaps and serious safety concerns.”

Sex-rejecting procedures on children “carry serious long-term health risks and lack sufficiently reliable evidence of clinical benefit,” the HHS said.

Through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the HHS is “ending the use of federal Medicaid and CHIP funds for these procedures on children and youth.”

The HHS noted to The Center Square that with the rule in place, “comprehensive coverage of mental health services for eligible children” will still be maintained, and children currently receiving hormone therapy will be provided “a tapering-off period of up to six months from its effective date.”

“This action reflects President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s commitment to protecting children, safeguarding taxpayer resources, and ensuring that federal health care programs support treatments backed by reliable evidence,” the HHS said.

Dissenter to the new rule the Advocates for Trans Equality say that Trump is “vilifying and attacking the health care rights of trans people,” by ending federal funding for child sex-change procedures, as stated by the group’s health policy analyst SMK.

“This rule is the latest move by the administration to hollow out the health care safety net for those who need it the most,” SMK said.

SMK said that “transition-related health care is essential and medically necessary health care that has been widely accepted by leading medical organizations for decades.”

Do No Harm says it debunked many of the core beliefs pushing gender-affirming care for minors in a report last year, such as the idea that such procedures improve the quality of life and mental health or that they decrease suicides.

Additionally, in June Do No Harm stated that there exists no evidence that genital removal procedures for minors benefit children.