Trump administration turns up heat on hospitals with financial oversight of gender-affirming care

The Trump administration hit the “gender-affirming care” industry Wednesday with a one-two punch, launching financial oversight into pediatric gender clinics and pressuring them to stop treating minors with drugs and surgeries.

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. directed clinics to review the department’s lengthy May 1 report, “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices,” which found “weak evidence” to support the use of medical intervention for minors.

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On the other side was Dr. Kurt Miceli, medical director of the advocacy group Do No Harm, which opposes gender-transition medical procedures for children.

“Health care providers should not rely on an organization that suppresses evidence and has pushed a political agenda when it comes to caring for children with gender dysphoria,” Dr. Miceli said in a Wednesday statement.

“For too long, vocal, activist doctors and medical associations have relied on WPATH guidance to inform treatment guidelines,” he said.

He said the HHS review “thoroughly highlighted the weak evidence WPATH used to justify so-called ‘gender-affirming care.’”

“In reality, sex-change procedures can cause devastating and often irreversible harms for the long-term development of minors – including infertility, surgical complications, cardiovascular disease, diminished bone density, and regret, to name a few,” Dr. Miceli said. “Children with gender dysphoria deserve evidence-based, high-quality care, not irreversible experimental interventions grounded in a political ideology.”

Read more on the Washington Times.