Published February 17, 2026
On February 17, 2026, EPPC Scholars Eric Kniffin, Rachel N. Morrison, and Mary Hasson submitted a public comment in response to two proposed rules from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services aimed at protecting children from the harms of sex-rejecting procedures.
The first rule would block federal Medicaid dollars and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) dollars from paying for sex-rejecting procedures for children. The second rule would prohibit Medicare and Medicaid-certified hospitals from performing sex-rejecting procedures on children.
The scholars’ comment begins by thanking the HHS and the Trump Administration more broadly for advancing policies that reflect a true understanding of the nature of the human person, something at the heart of EPPC’s mission. The comment notes the substantial overlap between the two proposed rules and offers points for CMS consideration, including:
- Summarizing the Trump Administration’s efforts to protect children from gender ideology and sex-rejecting procedures;
- Praising CMS for drawing on the HHS Review, a broad review of what scientific studies have shown about sex-rejecting procedures that HHS finalized last November;
- Pointing to important recent legal and cultural shifts against gender ideology and sex-rejecting procedures;
- Praising CMS for adopting the term “sex-rejecting procedures” and documenting how others are adopting this terminology; and
- Arguing that CMS’s longstanding prohibition on funding sterilizations for minors offers a strong precedent for the proposed prohibition on funding sex-rejecting procedures for minors.
The comment concludes by thanking CMS for its efforts to use the authority it has been given by Congress and President Trump to advance the rule of law, honor the Constitution’s separation of powers, and protect Americans from gender ideology.
Other legal, medical, religious, and policy organizations also submitted comments on the Proposed Rules, including:
- Alliance Defending Freedom
- Concerned Women for America
- Idaho Family Policy Center
- National Catholic Bioethics Center, Catholic Medical Association, National Catholic Partnership on Disability, and The National Association of Catholic Nurses
- Religious Freedom Institute
Eric Kniffin is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where he works on a range of initiatives to protect and strengthen religious liberty as part of EPPC’s Administrative State Accountability Project.
