Published May 27, 2025
On May 27, 2025, EPPC Scholar Eric Kniffin submitted a public comment on an HHS Interim Final Rule (IFR) titled “Unaccompanied Children Program Foundational Rule; Update To Accord With Statutory Program,” which identifies and removes an unlawful aspect of HHS’s April 30, 2024 “Unaccompanied Children Program Foundational Rule” (see EPPC’s Administrative State Accountability Project’s comment on the previous rule here).
In this most recent comment, Kniffin pointed the HHS Administration for Children and Families to provisions that also violate current statutory law like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act by directing the Office of Refugee Resettlement to make child placements based on “LGBTQI+ status” and consideration of “identity status.” As in EPPC’s prior comment, Kniffin asserted that this was an “unclear and problematic proposal, given that sexual fluidity is a common experience for youth …. As such, we noted that the designation of an unaccompanied child as having “LGBTQI+ status” may quickly become outdated, inaccurate, or no longer applicable.”
Kniffin also advised HHS to drop its previous proposal that unaccompanied children have access to abortion and so-called “gender transitions.”
The comment concluded: “I am hopeful that, in this instance, ACF will resolve these religious liberty and freedom of conscience concerns by revising the Foundational Rule so that it reflects federal law on abortion and the best science on sex-rejecting procedures … I support the IFR but believe … the Foundational Rule can and should be changed in light of President Trump’s directives to HHS.
A full version of the comment can be found here.
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.
