On Tuesday, President Donald Trump issued an executive order prohibiting medical and surgical procedures intended to alter a child’s sex, stating that such interventions are irreversible and harmful. The order, titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation,” argues that minors are being subjected to life-altering medical treatments under the “radical and false claim” that gender can be changed through medical intervention.

The facts of the 'PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM CHEMICAL AND SURGICAL MUTILATION' executive order:

– federal agencies and institutions will not receive financial aid if they do not adhere
– taxpayers will not fund these procedures through federal employee insurance plans
– WPATH… https://t.co/tNX01xfzQZ pic.twitter.com/pRUyDNw8Mq

— Riley Gaines (@Riley_Gaines_) January 28, 2025

“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,” the order states. “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,” it continues. “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 order states.

Trump shared the news on Truth Social, writing, “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. 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!”

Mark Trammell, executive director and general counsel of the Center for American Liberty, applauded the move. “President Trump is to be commended for his incredible leadership protecting vulnerable children from the gender industrial complex,” he said. “This executive order rightly distances federal agencies from the discredited World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) while also withholding federal funding from institutions that chemically and surgically mutilate kids.”

Trammell also criticized President Joe Biden, saying, “It is pathetic that Joe Biden lacked the moral and intellectual clarity to issue such an executive order, instead elevating politics over the health of vulnerable children.”

However, critics condemned the decision. Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, called the order an overreach. “Everyone deserves the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions for themselves and their families—no matter your income, zip code, or health coverage,” Robinson stated. “This executive order is a brazen attempt to put politicians in between people and their doctors, preventing them from accessing evidence-based health care supported by every major medical association in the country.”

“It is deeply unfair to play politics with people’s lives and strip transgender young people, their families, and their providers of the freedom to make necessary health care decisions. Questions about this care should be answered by doctors—not politicians—and decisions must rest with families, doctors, and the patient,” she added.

The order comes as legal battles over transgender medical procedures continue across the country. On Friday, Trump’s Department of Justice dropped charges against Dr. Eithan Haim, a whistleblower who exposed transgender procedures being performed on minors in Texas. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments last month regarding Tennessee’s law banning such treatments for minors, with a ruling expected by July 2025.

To date, over two dozen states have enacted similar restrictions, limiting access to transgender medical treatments for minors.