Health Law Advisor

On April 22, 2025, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memorandum entitled “Preventing the Mutilation of American Children” (“the AG Memorandum”). Directed to all Justice Department employees, the AG Memorandum sets forth steps that the Department will take to counteract gender affirming care to treat gender dysphoria. This is the most recent step in a series of actions that the Administration has taken targeting care for transgender children and represents a significant escalation in the Administration’s enforcement efforts. 

Background

On January 20, 2025, as one of his first official acts, the president signed Executive Order 14168 entitled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” (the “Gender Ideology EO”). Eight days later, the president issued Executive Order 14187, entitled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation” (the “Surgical Mutilation EO”) Broadly, the two Executive Orders (EOs) target laws and practices related to the role of transgender individuals in American society. The Surgical Mutilation EO specially addresses medication and surgical treatment for gender dysphoria and states, “[I]t is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”

In this episode of the Diagnosing Health Care Podcast: Gender-affirming care has become the latest flashpoint in state legislatures and state and federal courts across the nation.

States are divided, with some passing laws that seek to restrict access to gender-affirming care and others aiming to protect access.

What is gender-affirming care? What risks does it pose to providers and patients? On this episode, Epstein Becker Green attorneys Jenny Nelson Carney, Lisa Pierce Reisz, and Erin Sutton dissect gender-affirming care: what it is, what it isn't, and what is at stake for everyone involved.