This piece of news belongs in the category: "Shouldn’t we have done this already?"

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services just announced it has finalized a rule that eliminates all federal Medicaid and CHIP funding for “sex-rejecting procedures” on children and adolescents. (CHIP is the Children’s Health Insurance Program.)

The American College of Pediatricians describes “sex rejecting procedures” as “pharmaceutical and surgical interventions intended to alter a child’s physical characteristics to resemble those of the opposite sex.”  

Through Medicaid, the federal government has been subsidizing such gender transition procedures, including for minors, in more than half the states. In January 2025, via executive order, President Trump started the process to cut off this federal funding. The process included HHS's release of a 400-page report, writing a rule aimed at eliminating the funding, public comment on the rule, and final adoption of the rule. In announcing the final rule, President Trump stated, “We no longer are going to pay for our innocent children to undergo these barbaric surgeries and practices, which result in unthinkable and irreversible harm to their young bodies.” 

But why did this take so long? We’ve had the Cass Report out of the U.K., plus our own 400-page report, both showing the lack of scientific justification for these draconian protocols. Most Americans oppose them. The rulemaking process takes time. But the urgent necessity of stopping this mutilation of children and of protecting taxpayers from having to fund this evil should have prompted Congress to act. 

It’s great that we now have this directive. But a radical future administration could reverse it. Congress should codify it. 

“Healthcare” providers could skirt this rule by miscoding a patient’s diagnosis or prescription. The Washington Stand reports that Planned Parenthood affiliates admit to using “endocrine disorder codes” instead of “gender identity disorder codes” to get payment for gender transitions.  

We need vigorous enforcement of the new rule and congressional action.