Dr. Oz Says Life-Saving Gender-Affirming Care for Minors Should be 'Prehistoric Relic'

"Speaking at a news conference about the announcement, the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called gender-affirming care "malpractice," and Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz said the procedures should be a "prehistoric relic" that "fall[s] in the deepest abyss of dark periods of American history like prefrontal lobotomies represent today.""

"The new proposed rules would 1) ban doctors and hospitals from getting Medicaid reimbursement for providing gender-affirming care to minors, and 2) pull all Medicaid and Medicare funding from any hospital that provides gender-affirming care to minors. And while trans care for minors is already banned in 27 states, this proposal would have devastating effects across the entire country."

""Personal medical decisions ought to be made between patients, their doctors, and their families-not through a one-size-fits-all mandate from the federal government," added Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, Senior Vice President of Public Engagement Campaigns of the Trevor Project. "The multitude of efforts we are seeing from federal legislators to strip transgender and nonbinary youth of the health care they need is deeply troubling.""

"The nightmare duo also said HHS sent warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers for companies that sell and market breast binders for minors because binders "are not benign.""

A two-part federal proposal would withhold federal funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors, including puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and top/bottom surgery. HHS leadership publicly condemned gender-affirming care, labeling it "malpractice" and a "prehistoric relic," and cited comparisons to historical medical abuses. HHS sent warning letters to manufacturers and retailers of breast binders for minors, stating binders "are not benign." The proposed rules would ban Medicaid reimbursement for gender-affirming care for minors and strip Medicaid and Medicare funding from any hospital providing such care. Nearly 2.8 million people identify as transgender in the U.S.; about a quarter are ages 13–17. Advocacy groups argue that medical decisions should remain between patients, doctors, and families and warn the proposal would have nationwide consequences beyond states that already ban such care.

Read at Jezebel