Kennedy seeks to cut US children's access to gender-affirming care

19/12/2025 6:19

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. moved on Thursday to cut children's access to gender-affirming care, marking one of

the Trump administration's most sweeping restrictions yet on transgender healthcare.



Kennedy proposed rules barring hospitals that deliver such care from Medicare and Medicaid programs and prohibiting Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program from paying for it.



The moves are the latest in a wider crackdown by the Trump administration on the rights of transgender people through the elimination of legal protections in the military, healthcare, education and the workplace.



"Medical professionals or entities providing sex-rejecting procedures to children are out of compliance with ... standards of healthcare," said Kennedy, contradicting the nation's largest medical organizations.



The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association endorse gender-affirming care, saying decisions should rest between children, parents and healthcare professionals.