Published August 28, 2025
On Thursday, August 28, 2025, EPPC scholars Rachel N. Morrison, Eric Kniffin, and Mary Rice Hasson met with government officials in the Executive Office of the President (EOP) and the Department of Health and Human Services to discuss two forthcoming proposed rules by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The rules would prohibit hospitals from participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs if they performed sex-rejecting procedures on children and prohibit Medicaid funding for sex-rejecting procedures for children and youth.
Building on the scholars May 2025 white paper proposing “sex-rejecting procedures” as replacement terminology for “gender-affirming care,” the scholars flagged problems with the term “sex-trait modification procedures” that currently appears in the titles of both proposed rules.
The scholars applauded the Trump Administration’s decision not to use the ideological and euphemistic term “gender-affirming care” and urged CMS to replace “sex-trait modification procedures” with the superior term “sex-rejecting procedures.” The scholars pointed to a growing consensus around the term “sex-rejecting procedures,” explaining that the term is supported by leading organizations, medical professionals, attorneys, and parents seeking to protect children and others from gender ideology.
A written version of their comments, submitted to EOP’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, is available here (PDF).
Rachel N. Morrison is a Fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, where she directs EPPC’s Administrative State Accountability Project, which advocates for an authentic understanding of the human person in the drafting, implementation, and rollback of government regulations.
