Trump Vows to Introduce Executive Orders Aimed at Preventing ‘Left-Wing Insanity’ on Gender-Affirming Care

Former President Donald Trump addresses a crowd during a 2024 election campaign event in Columbia, S.C., on Jan. 28, 2023. Logan Cyrus/AFP via Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump has vowed to sign a string of executive orders if he is elected in 2024 targeting “gender-affirming health care” which he says will prevent the “chemical, physical, and emotional mutilation of our youth.”

Trump hit the campaign trail for the first time this week since announcing his 2024 bid for the White House in November 2022.

In a video posted to his social network on Jan. 31, the former president focused his attention on transgender health care, which allows children to undergo procedures related to modifying their gender, including taking various drugs or undergoing surgery.

Beginning his video, Trump said that “the left-wing gender insanity being pushed on our children is an act of child abuse, very simple.”

If reelected, Trump said he would “revoke Joe Biden’s cruel policies on so-called gender-affirming care” which he called “ridiculous,” pointing to things such as doctors giving children “puberty blockers, mutating their physical appearance, and ultimately performing surgery on minor children.”

Trump pledged to sign an executive order instructing every federal agency to “cease all programs” that promote gender transitioning and the concept of sex and gender transition at any age. He also said he would call on Congress to stop taxpayer funds from being used on these procedures and pass a law banning gender-affirming care “in all 50 states.”

"Gender-affirming" surgeries have become a lucrative business, but raise ethical questions as research reveals problems with complications and quality of life. UfaBizPhoto/Shutterstock

DOJ to Probe Hospitals, Pharma Industry

“It will go very quickly,” he said of his planned actions.

Additionally, Trump vowed to ensure that any hospital that allows gender-affirming care no longer meets standards for Medicaid and Medicare—a major source of financial support for hospitals and physicians. Those who do continue to provide such care will be “terminated” from the program immediately.

The Justice Department will also be ordered to investigate the pharmaceutical industry and hospitals to see whether they “deliberately covered up horrific long-term side effects of sex transitions in order to get rich at the expense of vulnerable patients,” Trump said, and he will support the creation of a private right-of-action for victims, allowing them to sue doctors who have “unforgivably performed these procedures” on minors.

The former president also pledged to follow through with a string of other actions aimed at banning gender-affirming health care, including ensuring that teachers at schools who suggest students may be transgender face “severe consequences” and promoting positive education at schools about the benefits of the “nuclear family” and the roles of mothers and fathers.

Trump would also call on Congress to pass a bill establishing that there are only two genders recognized under the U.S. government—male and female.

His plans will likely spark criticism from supporters of gender-affirming care for minors, including Democrats and LGBT advocates.

Multiple major medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychological Association, have all voiced support for such care among minors.

Chloe Cole, an 18-year-old woman who regrets surgically removing her breasts, holds testosterone medication used for transgender patients in Northern California on Aug. 26, 2022. John Fredricks/The Epoch Times

States Move to Ban Gender-Affirming Health Care

However, conservatives have become increasingly concerned about such care and how it impacts children, and states including Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Utah have banned or rolled out restrictions blocking children from receiving gender-affirming health care within the past two years.

Those actions in Alabama and Arkansas are currently on hold as litigation plays out in court.

While advocates point to studies citing the benefits of providing gender-affirming health care to minors, such as a 2022 study published in JAMA Network Open which found that rates of moderate or severe depression and suicidal thoughts dropped significantly among transgender or nonbinary teens within 12 months of receiving puberty blockers or gender-affirming hormones—other studies show differing results.

One such study published on Jan. 11 found that a gender-affirming surgery called “vaginoplasty” led to pain that required medical attention within 12 months after the surgery in over half of the individuals who underwent the procedure.

Another study (pdf) looking at the long-term effects of sexual reassignment procedures found that those who underwent such surgeries had a higher risk of suicide.

That study looked at 324 sex-reassigned persons (191 male-to-females and 133 female-to-males) in Sweden between 1973 to 2003 and ultimately found that people “with transsexualism, after sex reassignment, have considerably higher risks for mortality, suicidal behavior, and psychiatric morbidity than the general population.”

Despite this, Democrat lawmakers have in recent years rolled out a string of bills aimed at promoting and protecting children who want to undergo gender reassignment procedures, including in states such as Florida and California.