United States President Donald Trump signed an executive order Tuesday, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” banning transgender mutilation of minors. The order directs federal agencies to defund and oppose medical interventions, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, which are “irreversible and destructive.”
"Today, it was my great honor to sign an Executive Order banning the chemical castration and medical mutilation of innocent children in the United States of America," Trump announced on Truth Social. "Our Nation will no longer fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support so-called 'gender affirming care,' which has already ruined far too many precious lives. My Order directs Agencies to use every available means to cut off Federal financial participation in institutions which seek to provide these barbaric medical procedures, that should have never been allowed to take place!"
The order on the White House website reads in part,
"Across the country today, medical professionals are maiming and sterilizing a growing number of impressionable children under the radical and false claim that adults can change a child’s sex through a series of irreversible medical interventions. This dangerous trend will be a stain on our Nation’s history, and it must end.
"Countless children soon regret that they have been mutilated and begin to grasp the horrifying tragedy that they will never be able to conceive children of their own or nurture their children through breastfeeding. Moreover, these vulnerable youths’ medical bills may rise throughout their lifetimes, as they are often trapped with lifelong medical complications, a losing war with their own bodies, and, tragically, sterilization.
"Accordingly, it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called “transition” of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures."
The executive order defines “chemical and surgical mutilation” as the use of puberty blockers, sex hormones, and surgical procedures to alter a child’s physical appearance or reproductive anatomy.
The order directs the Department of Health and Human Services to withdraw funding for institutions that provide transgender procedures to minors and to publish a review of medical literature on treating gender dysphoria in minors within 90 days.
Federally run insurance programs, such as TRICARE and Medicaid, are ordered to exclude coverage for these procedures, and the Office of Personnel Management is directed to ensure federal employee health plans eliminate coverage for pediatric transgender surgeries and hormone treatments by 2026.
The order also tasks the Justice Department with enforcing existing laws, including prioritizing prosecutions under laws against female genital mutilation, and calls for investigations into alleged fraud and deception by medical providers regarding the long-term effects of transgender procedures for minors.
In earlier executive orders, Trump also directed transgender people incarcerated in the federal prison system, to be housed in facilities that match their biological sex. The order instructs the attorney general and the secretary of Homeland Security to ensure that males are not detained in women’s prisons or immigration detention centers.
Trump also signed an executive order that could lead to a ban on transgender women serving in the military, including in combat roles. The order directs the Pentagon to craft a policy on transgender troops that reflects the administration’s view that being transgender is “not consistent” with military service
The executive order notes that transgender individuals pose a risk to “unit cohesion” and “stability among service members” and that their transition-related medical care can affect military readiness.
The order also mandates that sleeping quarters and bathrooms be separated by sex assigned at birth, rather than gender identity, which would affect transgender men and women differently.
