For far too long, the American medical industry has been captured by an ideology that says sex is interchangeable, that the temporary whims of a child should be affirmed by permanent surgical mutilation. But at last, the Health and Human Services Department (HHS) announced that they are pulling the plug on these barbaric practices.
For years, Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC) has beaten the drum about the evils of gender ideology. Long before Capitol Hill thought any of this was actually happening, that there were doctors performing mastectomies on twelve-year-olds or performing vaginoplasties on healthy young boys, CWA was sounding the alarm. From the faithful supplications of our prayer action chapters, the tireless work of our state leaders, the pavement pounding of our legislative team, saving our kids from gender ideology has been one of our most important missions. Now all of that hard work has culminated in the Health and Human Services Department announcing that they are ending the government’s subsidization of procedures that mutilate a child’s God-given body.
In his opening address, Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy poignantly stated, “There is divine worth in every person, and it shines most brightly in our children. That worth commands us to protect them, and as long as I serve as HHS secretary, this agency will do so.”
To that end, he announced that his agency has taken six decisive actions to end the practice of sex-rejecting procedures. The first few, under the leadership of Dr. Mehmet Oz at the Centers of Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), aim to ensure no taxpayer dollars are going directly towards funding these procedures. CMS has proposed a rule that would bar hospitals from offering puberty blockers, hormone treatment, or any surgical operations to minors as a treatment for gender dysphoria as a requirement for participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs. Because nearly every hospital in the country participates in these programs, that rule alone practically ends taxpayer subsidization of these procedures.
But CMS is going further with yet another proposed rule, this one to block direct Medicaid funding for any of these procedures for children. Nearly 53% of kids under 18 receive Medicaid funding. The same prohibition will apply for children covered by the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP).
Not only will this save the lives of thousands of vulnerable children, but it will save the taxpayers millions of dollars. Sex-rejecting procedures are obscenely expensive. A vaginoplasty, the surgery to create an artificial vagina, costs $60,000. A phalloplasty, the creation of a fake phallus, costs $150,000. And those are just two of the dozens of different sex-rejecting procedures offered to children. The estimated savings to taxpayers by defunding these “Frankenstein-esque” procedures is $250 million.
CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz told the audience that the taxpayer funding of these procedures is a result of politics, not sound medical science. He quipped that, “We’re in a weird place where we’ve mixed politics and medicine. And you know what you get when you mix politics and medicine? Politics.”
HHS took several actions to affirm that that there is no scientific evidence that any of these treatments are an effective way to heal a child of their gender dysphoria. In November, they published Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices, its peer-reviewed study of the medical dangers posed to children from attempts to change their biological sex. Based on this report, Sec. Kennedy signed a declaration that such procedures do not meet professional medical standards. Under the declaration, practitioners who perform sex-rejecting procedures on minors would be deemed out of compliance with those standards. Similarly, the Assistant Secretary for Health and Head of the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps signed a public health message to inform health care providers, families, and policymakers that current evidence does not support claims that puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries are safe and effective treatments for pediatric gender dysphoria.
HHS is sending the message loud and clear that manipulating children into believing that they were born in the wrong body will not be tolerated. The Food and Drug Administration has sent warning letters to twelve companies who are falsely marketing products such as chest binders, which are traditionally used by breast cancer patients, as appropriate methods of treating children suffering from gender confusion. When used incorrectly, especially on adolescent bodies, these devices can have severe consequences such as rib fractures and spinal compression.
Finally, HHS is reversing a Biden-era attempt to treat gender dysphoria as a disability under federal law. This is significant because the previous administration’s rule would have made policies that prevent or limited sex-rejecting procedures a violation of federal disability nondiscrimination requirements. Unlike true disabilities, such as hearing impairments or blindness, gender dysphoria is not a permanent, incurable condition and should not be treated as such.
These actions are part of the agency’s response to several executive orders issued by President Trump earlier this year. One of them declared that there are only two sexes and all executive branch agencies will operate according to that basic reality. Another declared that the United States will not fund or promote the mutilation of children.
Chloe Cole, an outspoken detransitioner who was given an unnecessary double mastectomy at the age of 15, was at the HHS event to celebrate the rollout of these actions. Like so many families today, her parents were told that if they did not allow her to medically “transition,” she would commit suicide. She said that “rather than guiding me, [the doctors] affirmed my childish misgivings about myself and my body.”
This announcement is a wonderful step towards protecting kids like Chloe from a predatory industry that lies to children. But the ultimate solution is for these procedures to not even be an option. There is no instance in which removing healthy parts or artificially creating new ones is medically necessary, because no one is born in the wrong body. Each person is fearfully and wonderfully made by their Creator, and the sooner the destructive lie of gender ideology is eradicated from society, the better off everyone will be. We at CWALAC will continue to fight until that day comes.
