The Department of Health and Human Services is pushing back against the Human Rights Campaign’s condemnation of hospitals that have agreed to stop providing transgender procedures to minors, accusing activists of making “unfounded claims” linking restrictions on the procedures to violence.
“Protecting children from irreversible sex-rejecting procedures is not discrimination, and HHS will not allow unfounded claims linking these protections to violence to distract from the serious medical risks facing vulnerable children,” an HHS spokesperson told the Daily Signal in a statement Friday.
The statement marks the administration’s latest defense of efforts to halt transgender medical interventions for minors as major hospital systems across the country are reaching settlements with the Trump administration.
HRC issued a statement Wednesday condemning at least six hospitals that entered into settlements with the Trump administration and agreed to halt sex-rejecting procedures for minors.
Since May, six hospital systems have agreed to stop providing sex-rejecting procedures to minors. The systems include Texas Children’s Hospital, the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Connecticut Children’s Hospital, Mount Sinai Health System, NYU Langone Hospitals, and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
HRC called the trend “a crisis for families and transgender youth,” noting that even in states that passed laws to protect the controversial procedures, hospitals are stopping them. “Our thoughts are with the countless families across the country who feel scared and under siege,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said.
HRC has repeatedly claimed that “anti-transgender” laws lead to violence against transgender people. The statement claimed that the procedures are “best-practice, and potentially life-saving health care.”
Yet HHS released a peer-reviewed review last year finding “extremely weak evidence” for any benefits from “gender-affirming care” for young people.
Last month, HHS released “Wolves in White Coats,” a report focused on how medical professionals used false medical billing codes to prescribe so-called puberty blockers for minors.
HHS and other administration officials have challenged activist claims that restricting transgender medical interventions increases suicide, violence, or other harms. The administration has argued that the evidence supporting “puberty blockers,” cross-sex hormones, and surgeries for minors is weak and that the procedures carry significant risks.
The HHS spokesperson cited the Wolves in White Coats report, stating that “these procedures carry significant risks to children’s physical and mental health, including lifelong consequences.”
“Under President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s leadership, HHS will continue putting children’s health first and advancing policies grounded in the best available science,” the spokesperson concluded.
