President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order that seeks to crack down on government funding, coverage and promotion of sex-change procedures on minors as concerns persist about their long-term impacts.
Through the order signed Tuesday, Trump commits to “protecting children from chemical and surgical mutilation,” referring to body-mutilating procedures performed on minors under the age of 18 as well as the prescription of puberty-blocking and cross-sex hormone drugs.
“It is the policy of the United States that it 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 these destructive and life-altering procedures,” the order declared.
Get Our Latest News for FREE
Subscribe to get daily/weekly email with the top stories (plus special offers!) from The Christian Post. Be the first to know.
Examples of “chemical and surgical mutilation” listed in the order include puberty blockers, including “GnRH agonists and other interventions” that “delay the onset or progression of normally timed puberty in an individual who does not identify as his or her sex.” The order calls out the “use of sex hormones, such as androgen blockers, estrogen, progesterone, or testosterone, to align an individual’s physical appearance with an identity that differs from his or her sex.”
Trump also defined mutilation as “surgical procedures that attempt to transform an individual’s physical appearance to align with an identity that differs from his or her sex or that attempt to alter or remove an individual’s sexual organs to minimize or destroy their natural biological functions.”
“This phrase sometimes is referred to as ‘gender affirming care,'” the order states.
The order directs the heads of executive branch agencies to “take appropriate steps to ensure that institutions receiving Federal research or education grants end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children” and “rescind or amend all policies” that rely on guidance from the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, which encouraged the performance of gender transition procedures on minors.
Trump instructed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to “take all appropriate actions to end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children” using “regulatory and sub-regulatory actions,” “publish a review of the existing literature on best practices for the promoting the health of children who assert gender dysphoria, rapid-onset gender dysphoria, or other identity-based confusion” and “issue new guidance protecting whistleblowers” who report the performance of gender transition procedures on minors.
The order calls on the secretary of the Department of Defense to ensure that TRICARE, the healthcare program administered by the department, will “exclude chemical and surgical mutilation of children from TRICARE coverage and amend the TRICARE provider handbook to exclude chemical and surgical mutilation of children.” Another provision seeks to remove “coverage for pediatric transgender surgeries or hormone treatments” from Federal Employee Health Benefits and Postal Service Health Benefits.
Instructions to the Department of Justice ordered the “enforcement of laws against female genital mutilation across all American States and Territories” in addition to taking action against entities “that may be misleading the public about long-term side effects of chemical and surgical mutilation.” The DOJ is also asked to investigate the “so-called Sanctuary States that facilitate stripping custody from parents who support the healthy development of their own children” and oppose the performance of gender transition procedures on them.
Leading up to the 2024 presidential election that he ultimately won, the Trump campaign listed working to “stop the chemical, physical, and emotional mutilation of our youth” as one of its major policy proposals. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to “ask Congress to permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for these procedures” and “pass a law prohibiting child mutilation in all 50 states.”
The American College of Pediatricians lists potential side effects of puberty blockers as “osteoporosis, mood disorders, seizures, cognitive impairment and, when combined with cross-sex hormones, sterility” while warning that cross-sex hormones can cause youth to experience “an increased risk of heart attacks, stroke, diabetes, blood clots and cancers across their lifespan.”
Concerns about the long-term impact of gender interventions have already prompted authorities in some European countries to reconsider their approaches to treating the rising numbers of children who report suffering from gender dysphoria.
Twenty-six states have implemented bans preventing minors from obtaining some or all of these interventions: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
