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Adding to a cascade of executive orders signed during his first nine days in office, Trump issued a directive late Tuesday that aims to limit treatment options for transgender children and adults under the age of 19.
The dictate is one in a string of orders by Trump to govern gender from the Oval Office.
On Monday, Trump banned openly transgender people from serving in the armed forces. On the night of his inauguration, the president declared the federal government will only recognize two sexes, male and female, ending “gender ideology extremism.”
According to Trump’s latest gender-related order, the government will “not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
The order defines a “child” as being under age 19, although most states recognize 18 as the legal age of adulthood.
Under the directive, heads of federal health agencies must pull research and educational grants from any medical schools or hospitals that continue to offer hormone treatments, often called puberty blockers, or gender transition surgery to patients under 19 years old.
Additionally, the order directs the U.S. attorney general — who will likely be former Florida AG Pam Bondi — to work with Congress on legislation that would “enact a private right of action for children and the parents of children whose healthy body parts have been damaged by medical professionals” who prescribed hormone treatments or transition surgery. The legislation should “include a lengthy statute of limitations,” the order states.
The decree also instructs the Department of Justice to “prioritize” investigating cases of female genital mutilation, prosecutable under a federal law meant to protect girls in the United States from the religious or cultural custom of removing portions or all of the genitalia.
Trump’s order ensures that neither Medicare nor Medicaid can cover hormone therapy and certain surgical procedures for recipients under 19, and that insurance benefits offered to federal employees also do not offer coverage for those under 19 receiving the specified treatments.
The directive also mentions a ban on such health coverage for the trans children of U.S. service members, but that prohibition was already made explicit in Congress’ most recent annual defense authorization package.
The executive order titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” gives the next secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services three months to publish a review of “best practices for promoting the health of children who assert gender dysphoria, rapid-onset gender dysphoria, or other identity-based confusion” — but specifically labels any guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health as “junk science.”
Trump has nominated Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. as the nation’s next health secretary.