Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services Adm. Brian Christine has voiced support for the Trump administration's new rule that will prevent Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) from funding gender transition treatments for minors. Christine stated that such medical interventions, including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries, can lead to potentially irreversible and long-term consequences.
Christine, who oversees public health programs within HHS and leads the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, described these treatments as "sex-rejecting procedures" that can permanently alter a child's body. He emphasized that the vast majority of minors experiencing gender dysphoria would likely desist if provided with competent mental health counseling and compassionate care.
"What you don't want to do is carry out treatments… we refer to them as sex-rejecting procedures, where you're using castrating chemicals or cross-sex hormones or mutilating surgeries to permanently change their bodies and give them potentially life-long complications that can happen," Christine told Fox News Digital.
The new rule, which takes effect on October 13, does not ban the procedures themselves but cuts off federal funding. According to Christine, the science currently supports mental health care and counseling as the primary approach for minors experiencing gender dysphoria. He expressed concern that the diagnosis has become a "social contagion," leading to a significant increase in diagnoses among minors, particularly girls, which he noted is inconsistent with historical trends where gender dysphoria was more commonly diagnosed in adult males.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz stated in a press release that by ending federal funding for these procedures, the administration is "following the science, saving taxpayer dollars, and, most importantly, protecting children from potentially irreversible harm so they can truly flourish."
President Donald Trump also commented on the issue via Truth Social, calling gender transition surgeries and hormone treatments for minors "barbaric" and stating that the administration would not fund practices that cause "unthinkable and irreversible harm to their young bodies."
For children currently undergoing hormone therapy, the rule allows for a six-month tapering-off period, rather than an abrupt halt, to manage their transition off the drugs. Christine referred to the left's term "gender-affirming care" as a misnomer, stating that "mutilating surgeries and castrating chemicals affirm nothing."
According to KFF, a health policy group, 27 states have implemented restrictions on gender-affirming care for minors. Christine argued that the historical prevalence of gender dysphoria was among adult males and that its recent surge in minors is being driven by ideological influences rather than established epidemiology.