Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told senators at his second confirmation hearing to lead the Department of Health and Human Services that gender-affirming care has “catastrophic” effects on minors.
Sen. Josh Hawley asked Kennedy during Thursday’s Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing if he would support gender-affirming care. Kennedy then cited a U.K. study that came out last year, adding that it found that this type of care has “catastrophic impacts on children” and that, if confirmed, he would rescind all Biden-era policies that promote gender-affirming care.
“Our people who believe [gender-affirming care] is important, I respect them, we should hear them out. We should debate. We should have a continual conversation,” Kennedy said. “There are also people who believe that it is an atrocity, and they need to be listened to too.”
The study Kennedy cited did not find gender-affirming care to be “catastrophic.” It acknowledged that there is a lack of evidence for the long-term effects of gender-affirming medical treatments but added that gender-affirming medical care needs to be “holistic and personal” for each transgender patient.
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Gender-affirming care is endorsed by leading medical organizations like the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Endocrine Society, which say that this type of care “saves lives.”
Kennedy’s comments come days after President Donald Trump issued an executive order to end all federal support for gender-affirming care for trans people under the age of 19. In the order, Trump directs HHS to “take all appropriate actions to end the chemical and surgical mutilation of children.”
The order asks the Office of Management and Budget to ensure that medical institutions, including medical schools and hospitals, which provide gender-affirming care, stop receiving federal research or educational grants.
It also directs the Justice Department to work with state attorneys general to “prioritize enforcement of protections” against treatments for transgender women, as well as to work with state attorneys general to “coordinate the enforcement” of laws that ban gender-affirming care for minors.
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Oriana González is a reporter at NOTUS.
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