The attorney general Pam Bondi issued a memorandum this week that seeks to further reduce access to transgender medical care for minors. In the memorandum, Bondi said that the Department of Justice will use a variety of existing American laws to investigate the suppliers of such care, as well as medication manufacturers. and distributors.
She ordered lawyers to use laws against female genital mutilation to investigate doctors to “mutilate” children “under the appearance of attention” and to prosecute them “Crimes as much as possible.”
“I am putting doctors, hospitals and clinics into account: in the United States, it is a serious crime to perform, try to perform or conspire to perform female genital mutilation (‘FGM’) in any person under 18,” Bondi wrote. “That crime entails a maximum prison sentence of 10 years per account.”
Bondi also ordered the consumer protection branch of the civil division of the Department of Justice that investigates possible violations of the Food, Drug and Cosmetics Law. by manufacturers of drugs and distributors that are involved “in erroneous errors when making false statements about the use of puberty puberty, sex hormones or any other drugs used to facilitate” the gender transition of a minor.
And ordered the fraud section of the Civil Division to investigate possible violations of the Law on False Physicians who present “false claims … to federal medical care programs for any non -covered service related to the experimentation of radical gender.” (She included as an example of this, a doctor who prescribed the puberty blockers to a minor for gender transition care, but informing him of Medicaid as for the early start puberty).
Robin Maril, a constitutional law assistant professor at the University of Willamette in Oregon, said the Bondi memorandum does not change any existing law. The doctors, he said, will not violate the law by continuing to treat trans minors if they live in a state where such attention is still legal. He also pointed out that Medicaid fraud and government fraud are already crimes.
“Most of this is just to show how they will use resources and investigate,” Maril said. “That is not a change of law. It is intended to have a chilling effect on doctors who provide access to the necessary care, for fear that it is characterized as chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”
He added that the calling for memorandum to complainants to inform “knowledge of such violations” could cause doctors to be afraid of being reported.
It is not clear what type of procedure would be considered female genital mutilation “under the appearance of attention” in accordance with the interpretation of Bondi of US law. The FBI defines it as “the partial or total elimination of external female genitals or other injuries to female genital organs for non -medical reasons.”
Attention related to the transition for minors can cover a variety of treatments, including conversation therapy for younger children, medications to block puberty for adolescents and hormonal therapy for older adolescents. Bondi’s memory specifically mentions surgeries that affirm the genre, which are not recommended for minors. In rare cases, older adolescents can receive a double mastectomy or breast elimination.
Nor is it clear if Bondi’s directives would conflict with federal and state laws against discrimination. A provision in the Law of Low Price Health Care, for example, prohibits doctors who provide services funded by the Federal Government to discriminate according to sex. The Biden administration issued a notice that interpreted that willingness to include protection based on gender identity, but the Trump administration terminated that notice in February. Some defenders argue that the protections of the provision and some state laws of non -discrimination are still applied.
Since the 1980s, medical suppliers have prescribed the puberty blockers, which are temporarily stopping puberty, children who begin puberty too early, according to the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and have used them outside the label to treat trans adolescents since the 1990s.
The main medical associations in the United States, such as the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychology Association, support access to care related to the transition for minors and oppose restrictions.
In spite of this, the Bondi memorandum refers to this type of attention as “radical gender experimentation”, and cites the research carried out by a defense group that opposes the attention affirmed by gender for minors. That group found that, from 2019 to 2023, 14,000 children received treatment for gender dysphoria, the medical term for anguish caused by misalignment between gender identity and sex assigned to birth, and 5,700 underwent surgery.
However, Trans defenders have indicated that the breast surgeries rate among adolescents who are a tank, which means non -transgender, is much higher. For example, in 2011, more than 14,000 breast reduction procedures were carried out in the United States on adolescent children to correct gynecomastia, a benign condition that causes enlarged breast fabric, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.
Bondi’s memorandum is the last attempt of the administration to restrict trans medical care. Just over a week after its inauguration, President Donald Trump signed a wide executive order aimed at reducing care related to the transition for minors by prohibiting federal financing for such care and threatening to retain subsidies from hospitals and medical universities that provide attention, among other restrictions. At least two judges have temporarily blocked that order to enter into force.
In recent years, 27 states have promulgated measures that restrict access to care related to minors. The Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision soon in a lawsuit against such restriction in Tennessee, which could affect the access of minors to attention throughout the country and potentially take care of trans adults under health programs financed by the federal government.
