Mehmet Oz declares ‘America’s children aren’t lab mice’ in crackdown on gender transition treatments

Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz gave a sweeping condemnation of gender transition treatments for children in a Washington Post op-ed on Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a sweeping package of proposed regulatory actions to end “sex-rejecting procedures” on minors as part of President Donald Trump’s January executive order calling on the department to protect children from “chemical and surgical mutilation.”

Among them included banning the use of Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program funds for gender transition treatments for children and prohibiting hospitals participating in Medicare and Medicaid from performing these treatments.

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Oz wrote that comprehensive reviews have concluded that evidence for the treatments’ benefits were “remarkably weak” while the risks were too “substantial.”

“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.”

He called out medical professionals who have either ignored these findings or denounced objections as “bigotry.” Oz added that clinicians who seek to affirm a child’s “true identity” often avoid less invasive treatments and broader psychological issues.

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“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 also claimed that taxpayers could save more than $250 million over the next decade by cutting funding for gender transition treatments for minors.

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

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At a press event, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. warned that doctors performing “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 Thursday. “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.” 

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Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.