Dr. Oz Says ‘America’s Children Aren’t Lab Mice’ as HHS Moves to Restrict Gender Treatments for Kids [WATCH]

The Department of Health and Human Services announced a new package of regulatory actions on Thursday aimed at ending federal support for gender transition treatments for minors, drawing sharp lines around the use of taxpayer-funded healthcare programs and the medical practices allowed within them, as reported by Fox News.

The actions were outlined as part of President Donald Trump’s January executive order directing HHS to protect children from what the administration describes as “chemical and surgical mutilation.”

The proposed rules would ban the use of Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) to fund gender transition treatments for minors and prohibit hospitals that participate in Medicare and Medicaid from performing those procedures on children.

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz addressed the issue in a Washington Post op-ed published Thursday, delivering a broad condemnation of gender transition treatments for children and the medical standards supporting them.

“America’s children aren’t lab mice,” Oz wrote. “They deserve quality care backed by sound evidence and should not be conscripted as test subjects in risky experiments that cause irreversible harm.”

Oz cited what he described as comprehensive reviews concluding that evidence supporting the benefits of these treatments is “remarkably weak,” while the risks are “substantial.”

He criticized segments of the medical community for dismissing concerns as prejudice rather than engaging with the underlying data.

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He also argued that clinicians who frame these interventions as affirming a child’s “true identity” often bypass less invasive approaches and fail to address broader psychological issues.

“Proponents of the current approach demand that we ‘believe trans kids’ and insist that blockers, hormones, and surgeries are the most effective way to save gender-confused children from suicide,” Oz wrote.

“If they’re wrong — as studies increasingly suggest — then ‘gender-affirming care’ for kids will have earned its place in the medical malfeasance hall of shame, right next to lobotomies.”

Oz further stated that ending federal funding for these treatments could save taxpayers more than $250 million over the next decade.

“These proposed rules aren’t about scoring political points. They’re about grounding our health policy in science — and protecting our kids,” he wrote.

At a press event Thursday, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reinforced the administration’s stance, warning that doctors who perform what he described as “sex-rejecting procedures” on minors would be deemed out of compliance with professional medical standards.

“They betrayed their Hippocratic Oath to do no harm,” Kennedy said.

“So-called gender-affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people. This is not medicine. It is malpractice. We’re done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the well-being of children.”

HHS officials said the proposed rules are part of a broader effort to realign federal health policy with what they describe as evidence-based medicine and long-standing pediatric standards.

The regulatory changes will go through the federal rulemaking process before being finalized.

If implemented, the rules would represent one of the most sweeping federal restrictions to date on gender transition treatments for minors, directly affecting hospitals, clinics, and providers that rely on Medicare, Medicaid, or CHIP funding.

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