Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sent shockwaves through the medical community Wednesday with a letter urging providers and state medical boards to end the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgeries on children suffering from gender confusion.

The letter follows the release of a major HHS review titled “Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices”, which found that the evidence for child sex-change interventions is “weak” and that the risks are serious and often irreversible—including infertility, surgical complications, and sexual dysfunction.

“HHS expects you promptly to make the necessary updates to your treatment protocols… to protect [children] from these harmful interventions,” Kennedy wrote.

He warned medical professionals to stop relying on guidance from the World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH), calling its Standards of Care Version 8 (SOC-8) “fraudulent” and a departure from “unbiased, evidence-driven” medicine. WPATH has controversially supported irreversible procedures for children as young as 8 and recently removed age minimums for surgeries like double mastectomies.

The administration’s scathing review directly contradicts the claims of many progressive medical institutions, instead aligning with the growing wave of restrictions in countries like Sweden and England. These nations have already begun curbing pediatric gender transitions after their own reviews found serious problems with the science.

Dr. Kurt Miceli, Medical Director of Do No Harm, applauded the move. He said children deserve “evidence-based, high-quality care,” not “irreversible experimental interventions grounded in a political ideology.” According to Miceli, reliance on WPATH’s guidance has led to the widespread use of treatments that lack credible support and pose significant health dangers—such as diminished bone density and cardiovascular issues.

U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, a physician and chair of the Senate HELP Committee, backed Kennedy’s directive. “As a doctor, I am extremely concerned that medical organizations continue to push irreversible gender transition procedures for children against scientific data,” Cassidy said. “I applaud President Trump’s strong leadership.”

RFK Jr. also pointed to the Hippocratic Oath—“First, do no harm”—and called on American doctors to follow the lead of their European counterparts who have already reined in radical gender interventions on minors. His letter ends with a final appeal to those in the medical field to protect vulnerable kids from what he called a dangerous and failed ideology.

The move represents the clearest and most forceful policy stance yet from the Trump administration on pediatric gender medicine. By combining hard data with moral clarity, Kennedy and HHS are setting a new precedent—and possibly triggering a legal and medical reckoning for hospitals and clinics across the country.

What happens next could reshape the entire national debate over youth gender transitions. For now, RFK Jr.’s message is loud and clear: it’s time to stop the harm and bring real medicine back into America’s children’s hospitals.