Press Releases

Today, Education and Labor Committee Republican Leader Virginia Foxx (R-NC) sent letters to Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra and multiple hospitals offering gender-transition interventions to children about policies that deny parents the opportunity to be involved in life-altering medical decisions impacting their children. 

In the letter to Becerra, Foxx writes: “[T]he current administration has pushed to make it easier for children with healthy bodies to access puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and life-altering, irreversible surgeries. The Department of Health and Human Services has weaponized its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) and Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act to threaten providers and plans that refuse to assist children diagnosed with gender dysphoria in receiving surgical or hormonal medical interventions.”
 
The letter continues: “Meanwhile, parents are facing concerning threats from states and the courts if they do not endorse these radical, experimental medical interventions for their children. While some states have safeguards in place to protect children from these unsafe medical protocols, several states have adopted broad nondiscrimination policies based on gender identity that jeopardize parental rights. … One of the most harmful actions occurs when government agencies intervene between children and parents, as when CPS removes a child from the custody of his or her parents because the parents will not consent to their child undergoing these experimental treatments.”

In letters to six hospitals, Foxx writes: “Your hospital’s website touts the role it plays in delivering ‘gender-affirmative’ medical interventions to children. … I have concerns about the use of life-altering, irreversible medical interventions on children with healthy bodies. Further, I want to ensure parents are a key part of any medical decisions for their children. Parents have the right and responsibility to make medical decisions for their children, and they should be free to do so without undue pressure or interference from medical establishments.”

Read the letter to Secretary Becerra here.
Read the letter to Boston Children’s Hospital here.
Read the letter to Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago here.
Read the letter to Children’s Hospital Los Angeles here.
Read the letter to UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital San Francisco here.
Read the letter to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital here.
Read the letter to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia here.