WASHINGTON, D.C. — In the Trump administration’s latest move to protect children from chemical and surgical mutilation, President Donald J. Trump directed the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to end taxpayer funding for drugs, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries that perpetuate the falsehood that children can change their sex. Independent Women applauds President Trump, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz for taking action to stop taxpayers from being forced to bankroll irreversible procedures that alter children’s healthy bodies in pursuit of an impossible change of sex.

Neeraja Deshpande, Independent Women policy analyst, said, “It should not have to be said that the federal government should not fund physically and mentally damaging surgeries and hormones for children, and yet, it needs to be said. Kudos to Dr. Oz at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services for banning public health insurers from hurting kids. Hopefully, private health insurers will follow suit.”

Beth Parlato, senior legal counsel for Independent Women’s Law Center, said, “Taxpayers should never be forced to fund irreversible interventions that leave children with lifelong consequences. The administration is right to put an end to Medicaid funding for these procedures and to ensure that vulnerable children are protected rather than used as experiments. This is an important step toward restoring common sense and accountability.”

Prisha Mosley, Independent Women ambassador and detransitioner, said, “Medical fraud and abuse should have never been the burden of the taxpayer, nor offered by reputable insurance companies meant to be paying for legitimate claims.”

Luke Healy, Independent Women ambassador and detransitioner, said, “The administration should move past mere banning of these procedures and into prosecution of those who carried them out.”

Soren Aldaco, Independent Women ambassador and detransitioner, said, “It’s difficult to accept that these interventions were ever funded by American taxpayers. Adolescent “gender medicine” is a pseudoscience that belongs nowhere near routine check-ups or dentistry. It’s a blessing that the tens of millions of children enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP will face one less mirage as they grow into their own skin.”

BACKGROUND:

In December, Independent Women applauded the Department of Health and Human Services for proposing several policy positions by moving to bar hospitals from performing sex-rejecting procedures on minors as a condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid, carrying out President Donald J. Trump’s executive order to end the surgical and chemical mutilation of minors.

Since 2022, Independent Women’s Features (IW Features), the grassroots storytelling and original journalism arm of Independent Women, has worked to expose the irreversible harm of so-called “gender-affirming care” through its “Identity Crisis: Real Stories About Escaping Gender Ideology” series. 

For years, Independent Women, detransitioners, parents, whistleblowers, and medical experts have warned that vulnerable children were being placed on a medical pathway built on weak evidence, ideological pressure, and inadequate disclosure of long-term risks. 

From “top surgery,” nipples peeling off, clitoral growth, trapped milk ducts, and hairy bodies, Identity Crisis documentaries bring to light the graphic stories of young adults now reckoning with the physical and emotional scars of gender ideology:

Direct media inquiries and booking requests to [email protected] 

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