Trump Administration Moves to Ban Transition Care for Minors, Adds FDA Warnings and New CMS Rules

The Trump administration announced Thursday that it would begin steps aimed at ending transition‑related care for minors nationwide.

HHS Sets New Rules to Stop Minors’ Transition Care

A department official told reporters that the federal government would no longer fund gender transition procedures on minors or facilities that perform them. The official added that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will start a rulemaking process to prohibit hospitals from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries to minors as a condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid. The same official said the rules will also bar Medicaid funding from being used for such care.

In addition, the Food and Drug Administration will issue warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers of breast binders marketed to minors for treating gender dysphoria. The department cited allegations that the manufacturers were engaged in illegal marketing.

The Office for Civil Rights has proposed a revision to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The change would clarify that “disability” does not include gender dysphoria that does not result from a physical impairment. The official said the clarification was meant to “resolve an ambiguity” introduced by the Biden administration in the preamble of Section 504 in 2024, which had suggested that gender dysphoria might qualify as a disability and caused confusion about the scope of HHS funding obligations.

The proposed CMS rules will be finalized after a 60‑day comment period, the official said.

Context: A Long‑Running Push to Restrict Trans Care

The new moves are part of a broader pattern of Trump‑era policies targeting transgender health. In the first weeks of his second term, President Donald Trump issued executive orders declaring that only two unchangeable sexes exist and barring federal funding to hospitals that provide transition‑related care to minors. In May, HHS released a review that concluded the quality of evidence regarding the effects of gender‑affirming care for minors is “very low.” That review broke with the majority of U.S. medical associations, which support access to such care and have condemned efforts to restrict it.

Over the past few years, 27 states have enacted measures limiting access to certain transition‑related treatments for minors, according to the Movement Advancement Project, an LGBTQ think tank. Families who could afford it began traveling to states where care remained legal.

In July, the federal government began investigating providers across the country. The investigation led more than 20 hospitals—including those in liberal cities such as Los Angeles and Boston—to roll back or end their gender‑affirming care programs for minors and some young adults.

Impact on Families

The restrictive environment has forced some transgender adults and families with trans children to leave the United States. Rachel Gonzales, a Texas mother of three, said her family had no plans to leave the state until the federal actions forced them to move. Gonzales’ daughter, Libby, is now 15. She and her husband relocated the family to a country that Gonzales declined to disclose.

During a Human Rights Campaign press briefing, Gonzales said:

> “Living in Texas, we became targets of politicians who have boldly rejected the consensus of medical experts and decided that they know better than Libby, my husband and I, and our team of physicians and have opted to use us as their political targets, instead of allowing us the parental rights that they so claim to advocate for.”

Congressional Response

Just a day before the HHS announcement, the House passed a bill that would charge doctors with a felony punishable by up to ten years in prison if they provide gender‑affirming care for minors. The legislation, introduced by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R‑Ga., is expected to die in the Senate but represents the harshest federal penalty for doctors providing transition‑related care to minors ever passed by the House.

Greene posted on X that the bill’s passage was “a win for children all over America.”

Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R‑Texas, introduced another bill that the House will vote on Thursday. That bill would prohibit Medicaid from covering gender transition procedures for anyone under the age of 18.

Key Takeaways

• HHS will prohibit hospitals from providing puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgeries to minors and will bar Medicaid funding for such care.
• The FDA will send warning letters to 12 breast‑binder manufacturers and retailers.
• The Office for Civil Rights is revising Section 504 to exclude gender dysphoria from the definition of disability.
• The new rules follow a history of executive orders, state restrictions, and federal investigations that have already forced many families to seek care abroad.
• Congressional bills are adding criminal penalties for doctors and further restricting Medicaid coverage for transgender minors.

The administration’s actions signal a decisive shift in federal policy toward transgender health, affecting care for minors, medical providers, and families across the country.