RFK Jr announces moves to cut off gender-affirming care for children – US politics live

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If you’re just joining us, Trump’s health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has proposed to effectively ban gender-affirming care for children across the United States in federal programs, threatening to cut federal funding from any hospitals offering those treatments.

• He proposed that Medicaid and children’s health programs would be prohibited for paying for such treatments, and hospitals providing the treatments would be considered in violation of the conditions for receipt of all Medicaid and Medicare funding.

• He also said the FDA has issued warning letters to 12 manufacturers of breast binders for what Kennedy called “illegal marketing” of the products to children as a treatment for gender dysphoria.

• Kennedy also announced that HHS is moving to reverse the inclusion of gender dysphoria within the definition of a disability.

• He said gender-affirming care (or “sex-rejecting procedures) was “not medicine, it is malpractice”, and claimed it was “neither safe nor effective” treatment for children.

RFK Jr announces moves to cut off gender-affirming care for children

To sum up, Kennedy has just announced proposals to cut access to gender-affirming care for children. The rules he’s put forward would prohibit hospitals that deliver such care from Medicare and Medicaid programs and also prohibit Medicaid and children’s health programs from funding it.

HHS is also moving to reverse the inclusion of gender dysphoria within the definition of a disability, he says.

The FDA is also issuing warning letters to 12 manufacturers of breast binders that “the illegal marketing of breast binders to children for the purpose of treating gender dysphoria commits significant regulatory violations and requires swift corrective action”, Kennedy says.

If they don’t comply they could face enforcement actions including product seizures, he adds.

The second rule prohibits federal Medicaid dollars from funding those procedures on minors.

The first rule he proposes is to prohibit hospitals that participate in Medicare and Medicaid from performing these procedures.

He says that this morning he signed a declaration saying that “sex-rejecting procedures are neither safe nor effective treatment for children with gender dysphoria”.

“Medical professionals or entities providing sex-rejecting procedures to children are out of compliance with the standards of healthcare,” he says.

“So-called gender-affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people,” he says.

“This not medicine, it is malpractice,” he says, adding: “We’re done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the wellbeing of children.”

RFK Jr is speaking now. He says that doctors are “obligated to protect children”, but across the country are performing “needless, irreversible sex-rejecting procedures that violate their sacred Hippocratic oath and endangering the very lives they are sworn to safeguard”.

The series of regulatory actions RFK Jr is about to announce are designed to effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors, building on the Trump administration’s broader restrictions on transgender Americans, the Associated Press reports.

The sweeping proposals – the most significant moves this administration has taken so far to restrict the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical interventions for transgender children – include cutting off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children and prohibiting federal Medicaid funding from being used on such procedures.

More than half of US states already ban or restrict gender-affirming care. But today’s announcement imperils access in nearly two dozen states where drug treatments and surgical procedures remain legal and funded by Medicaid, which includes federal and state dollars.

It’s important to note that the proposals RFK Jr is going to announce are not final or legally binding. The federal government must go through a lengthy rule-making process, including periods of public comment and document rewrites, before the restrictions becoming permanent. They are also likely to face legal challenges.

But the proposed rules will probably further intimidate healthcare providers from offering gender-affirming care to children and many hospitals have already ceased such care in anticipation of federal action.

RFK Jr set to announce moves to cut off transgender care for children

Per our earlier post, health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr is due to hold a press conference shortly at which he is expected to announce two measures to block doctors and hospitals from performing medical care to transgender patients younger than age 18. I’ll bring you all the key updates here.

Explainer: Deadline nears for release of Epstein files – what we know so far

by Victoria Bekiempis and Will Craft

A reminder that in less than 48 hours, Donald Trump’s justice department must release most of the files related to Jeffrey Epstein in its possession.

Last month, Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the release of those materials by 19 December, except in narrow cases where they would jeopardize current investigations, harm national security or foreign policy goals, or reveal information about Epstein’s victims.

Since Trump signed the legislation, his administration has been silent on its progress. Earlier this month, a bipartisan group of lawmakers asked Pam Bondi, the attorney general, for a briefing on the department of justice’s progress, but she did not provide one. Two Democratic senators among that group subsequently pledged to block some civilian nominees, because they were concerned the administration “is gearing up to disregard the law we led the fight in the Senate to pass, which overwhelmingly passed both chambers of Congress”.

It’s not clear what remedy could follow if the justice department does not heed the law mandating disclosure, though such a move would surely provoke a political firestorm. If the files are released, they could contain hundreds of thousands of pages related to investigations into the late sex trafficker, including additional victims’ claims and the names of his high-profile associates. The documents might also lift the veil on how Epstein – who counted Trump and the former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor among his powerful friends – evaded justice for decades.

Here’s a rundown of the key moments from this past year that have led to this new release of files:

According to the president’s schedule, Trump will be signing an executive order at 1.30pm ET in the Oval Office, that’s closed to press right now but could change. Later at 4.15pm he’s taking part in a Christmas reception in the grand foyer, and signing the National Defense Authorization Act at 6pm.

The Senate passed the bill yesterday with broad bipartisan support (77-20), authorizing a record $901bn in military spending for next year. A key aspect of the bill that was a clear rebuke to Trump is a stipulation from lawmakers that some of defense secretary Pete Hegseth’s travel budget will be restricted until he hands over the unedited videos of strikes against alleged drug-smuggling boats to Congress.

The legislation, running at over 3,000 pages long, represents a compromise between the two parties. For instance, it codifies key parts of Trump’s agenda, including abolishing DEI efforts in the military and authorizing the use of active-duty troops at the southern border. But it also requires the US to retain its current troop levels in Europe and includes some aid to Ukraine ($400m for military assistance for fiscal years 2026 and 2027), among other things.

Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr will hold a press conference at 11am at the headquarters of the Department of Health and Human Services, at which he is expected to announce two measures to block doctors and hospitals from performing medical care to transgender patients younger than age 18.

Dr Mehmet Oz, leader of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, Dr Marty Makary, chief of the Food and Drug Administration, and Dr Jay Bhattacharya, who leads the National Institutes of Health, will also attend the press conference.

Kennedy has been working on rules that would block federal Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement for doctors and hospitals providing gender-affirming care to transgender patients younger than age 18.

The rule change comes a day after a bill introduced by Representative Marjorie Taylor Green passed narrowly in the house to criminalize gender-affirming care to transgender minors, punishable by a fine or prison time of up to 10 years. A bill scheduled for a vote today from the Republican representative Dan Crenshaw of Texas would prohibit Medicaid reimbursement for pediatric gender-affirming care. Neither bill has passed the Senate.