Trump admin announces crackdown against transgender care to minors, draws flak from medical community

WASHINGTON,DC: Trump administration health officials announced on Thursday (local time) that the federal government will block transgender care to children by targeting hospitals and doctors that provide it, CNN reported.

New proposed rules would prohibit hospitals from participating in Medicare and Medicaid if they provide care such as puberty blockers and surgeries for transgender minors, and would prevent federal coverage of such treatments.

“These procedures fail to meet professionally recognised standards of care,” US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr said, calling many types of transgender care “malpractice.” “Medical professionals or entities providing sex-rejecting procedures to children are out of compliance with these standards of health care,” as per CNN.

Medical groups denounced the announcements, saying they intrude on physician-patient relationships and jeopardise care for everyone, as per CNN.

“Allowing the government to determine which patient groups deserve care sets a dangerous precedent, and children and families will bear the consequences,” said Susan Kressly, president of the American Academy of Paediatrics.

“Patients, their families, and their physicians – not politicians or government officials – should be the ones to make decisions together about what care is best for them. The government’s actions today make that task harder, if not impossible, for families of gender-diverse and transgender youth,” she added, as quoted by CNN.

It’s the latest in a string of actions by Trump’s administration that target transgender people, including eliminating mention of trans people on federal websites, halting data collection on health issues, removing trans people from the military and suing states that allow trans athletes to play on high school sports teams.

Meanwhile, US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary said the agency is sending warning letters to 12 makers and sellers of breast binders who marketed or sold the devices for the treatment of gender dysphoria in children.

National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya also said the research agency will end support for research into gender transition, saying, “it was junk science to begin with.”

HHS leaders on Thursday cited their own review of evidence and reports from other countries, many of which have faced sharp criticism for drawing sweeping conclusions with little or poor evidence.

The HHS announcement came just after the House passed a bill that could imprison health care providers for providing trans care for minors.

The bill, sponsored by Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, could incarcerate doctors who provide care such as surgeries or puberty blockers for up to 10 years. It’s unclear whether the GOP-led Senate will take up the measure, though it is unlikely to get enough Democratic support to pass out of that chamber, according to CNN. (ANI)