"I will … ask Congress to permanently stop federal taxpayer dollars from being used to promote or pay for these procedures, and pass a law prohibiting child sexual mutilation in all 50 states."
The Trump administration has taken steps to ban gender-affirming care for minors, procedures rarely provided to children.
Federal officials will propose rules to bar hospitals from performing surgical interventions for transgender children as a condition of participating in Medicare and Medicaid. The proposal would also prohibit Medicaid funding for such procedures for children and also apply to the federal Children's Health Insurance Program, which provides low-cost health coverage to children and pregnant women in families that earn too much money to qualify for Medicaid.
"This is not medicine," Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Dec. 18. "It is malpractice."
Gender-affirming care refers to individualized health care that prioritizes encouraging and supporting a person's gender identity. It can include using the name and pronouns that align with a person's gender identity or, after puberty begins, medical treatments such as puberty blockers or hormone therapies.
Medicaid and Medicare accounted for about 44% of hospital care spending in 2023, wrote KFF, a health information nonprofit, in 2025.
The proposed rules are subject to a months-long review process that allows for public comment. Groups that support gender-affirming medical procedures are likely to sue.
More than half the states have already banned access to youth gender-affirming care.
The House this week passed what it titled the Protect Children's Innocence Act, which would makes it a federal crime to provide gender transition treatments to minors punishable by up to 10 years in prison. The bill passed largely along party lines, with three Democrats joining Republicans in favor. The bill is likely to stall in the Senate.
In January, Trump signed an executive order that declared the U.S. government "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." That order is in litigation after states and the family of a transgender girl sued.
Some U.S. hospitals responded to the order by suspending treatments.
A February Pew Research Center survey found that Americans have grown more supportive of restrictions for trans people. Fifty-six percent supported banning health care professionals from providing care related to gender transitions for minors.
PolitiFact's MAGA-Meter has been tracking Trump's promise to outlaw gender-related surgery for minors. Our promise tracking rates outcomes without making a value judgment on the policies.
Trump promised to ask Congress to block federal taxpayer dollars on this care. The proposed rules are another potential path in early stages
We rate this promise In the Works.
On Jan. 28, Trump signed an executive order that declared the U.S. government "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 action followed similar steps 25 states have undertaken to ban gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth.
Trump's order called for ending federal funding to hospitals or medical schools that provide gender-affirming medical care to people under 19 years old. It directed the Department of Health and Human Services to "take all appropriate actions" under law to end access to care. This could include changing Medicare and Medicaid insurance coverage.
Trump's pledge to call for a national legislative ban on gender-affirming surgical care for minors remains a promise for now. The order he signed did not include such a congressional directive.
But after Trump signed the order, some U.S. hospitals, including in states where gender-affirming care for youth is legal, responded by suspending their care offerings.
Families with transgender children challenged the order in court and, on Feb. 13, a federal district court judge in Maryland temporarily blocked the order's enforcement for review.
Trump's order does not make the care illegal nationally, nor does it call for it to be "outlawed," but if the legal block is lifted, the order will likely further restrict access to care.
The order proposes Congress pursue legislation establishing "a private right of action" to sue medical providers who perform gender-affirming care if a minor's "body parts have been damaged." It also directs the attorney general to enforce existing laws against "female genital mutilation."
Experts said gender-affirming surgical care is not the same as female genital mutilation. That is one of several misleading claims in the executive order that we fact-checked.
Several Republican House and Senate members have introduced bills this term that propose to either end federal funding for gender-affirming care for youth or establish a private right-of-action.
Trump's executive order signals a step toward reducing access to gender-affirming medical and surgical care for transgender youth. Congress has separately proposed limitations on access to gender-affirming care that may move forward. We rate this promise In the Works.