US President Donald Trump signed an executive order late on Tuesday limiting gender transition procedures for people under the age of 19. This follows his inauguration speech, where he had said that his administration would only recognize two genders, male and female.
The order says, “Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children. This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.”
The order says that the US government will not “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another.” It includes restrictions on puberty blockers, hormone treatments, and gender-affirming surgeries, which the order refers to as “chemical castration and surgical mutilation.”
It also directs the government to “rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
Trump later posted on Truth Social, “Our Nation will no longer fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support so-called ‘gender affirming care,’ which has already ruined far too many precious lives.”
The US president called gender-affirming care “barbaric medical procedures.”
There is no federal law banning gender-affirming medical treatments for transgender minors, but Trump’s order ends federal funding for such procedures. This includes restrictions on Medicaid, Medicare, and US defense department health insurance, which covers around 2 million children.
Trump also said he would work with Congress on legislation allowing children and parents to sue doctors who perform gender-affirming surgeries.
Last week, Trump told the Davos forum that gender surgery “will occur very rarely” under his administration.
Around 24 Republican-led states have already passed laws restricting medical care for gender transitions for minors. In December, US Supreme Court justices debated a Tennessee law that bans puberty blockers and hormone therapy for people under 18.
