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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) sent letters this week to multiple medical organizations, demanding they provide the department with a “clear, current statement” on their positions regarding gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

The organizations in question have expressed support for such care, with many noting that gender-affirming care is based on years of study and careful implementation.

Conversely, HHS framed the letters using non-medical terminology, asking the groups to “answer” for their support of so-called “sex-rejecting procedures for minors.”

The letters from HHS have been sent to the Endocrine Society, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, Columbia University trans health expert Asa Radix, and American Academy of Pediatrics CEO Mark Del Monte.

“HHS has asked these organizations for clear answers about their current positions, the evidence supporting their guidance, and whether they intend to change it,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in announcing the letters.

In a press release explaining why the letters were sent out, HHS stated it also wants “identification of any planned revisions to their respective guidance, and a timeline for those changes.” The department is giving the organizations 10 business days to respond.

Past statements from some of these organizations note that health care for transgender individuals — including trans children and teenagers — is beneficial, and that denial of such care when it’s warranted is harmful.

“We recognize health as a basic human right for every person, regardless of gender identity or sexual orientation,” reads a statement from the American Psychiatric Association published in 2021. “For gender-diverse individuals, including children and adolescents, this means access to gender-affirming care that is part of comprehensive primary care.”

“Physicians must be able to practice medicine that is informed by their years of medical education, training, experience, and the available evidence, freely and without threat of punishment,” the organization added. “Patients and their physicians, not policymakers, should be the ones to make decisions together about what care is best for them.”

The American Medical Association made a similar statement that same year, writing that:

Physicians are guided by their ethical duty to act in the best interest of their patients and must tailor recommendations about specific interventions and the timing of those interventions to each patient’s unique circumstances. Such decisions must be sensitive to the child’s clinical situation, nurture the child’s short- and long-term development, and balance the need to preserve the child’s opportunity to make important life choices autonomously in the future.

Dozens of other medical organizations, beyond those that HHS sent letters to, have also affirmed the need to preserve gender-affirming care, including for young trans patients.

Gender-affirming care is life-saving for many transgender and/or nonbinary individuals, including for young people. An observational study from late 2025, examining hundreds of trans patients between the ages of 12 and 20 from 2017-2024, found that suicidality rates for these patients dropped by 67 percent after they were given treatments that affirmed their gender identity.

Despite overwhelming evidence demonstrating the benefits of gender-affirming care, dozens of states across the U.S. have banned such treatment options for trans youth and young adults, often using misinformation to justify doing so.

President Donald Trump has also used blatantly false anti-trans talking points in an attempt to scare or anger people into backing Republicans in this year’s midterm elections. Meanwhile, some Democrats have also tried to appeal to voters by claiming they are skeptical of transgender rights, supporting, for example, unfounded bans on trans athletes, disallowing them to participate on teams corresponding to their correct genders.