HHS proposes actions to limit access to gender-affirming care for minors
Robert F. Kennedy Jr., US secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), during an executive order signing in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Dec. 18, 2025. US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing his administration to move cannabis into a less restrictive federal category, setting in motion a regulatory shift that could alter the legal and commercial landscape for the drug nationwide. Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomb
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Thursday a series of proposed actions to limit access to gender-affirming care for minors.
It comes after HHS released a final version of its report on pediatric gender-affirming care last month, claiming it found “medical dangers posed to children,” which received pushback from medical groups.
Speaking at press event, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy said doctors providing gender-affirming care for minors are endangering lives and lambasted medical organizations that have supported such care for transgender youth.
“They betrayed their Hippocratic Oath to do no harm,” Kennedy said. “So-called ‘gender affirming care’ has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people. This is not medicine. It is malpractice. We’re done with junk science, driven by ideological pursuits, not the well-being of children.”
Kennedy also signed a declaration finding that gender-affirming surgeries do not meet professional recognized standards of health care, with an HHS press release stating that doctors who perform these procedures would be deemed “out of compliance with those standards.”
The proposed regulations include actions from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Office of Civil Rights (OCR).
CMS will issue a proposal barring hospitals from participating in Medicare and Medicaid programs if they provide gender-affirming to children under age 18.
Another CMS proposal will prohibit federal Medicaid funding for hospitals providing gender-affirming care on children under age 18 and funding from the federal Children’s Health Insurance Program.
Additionally, the FDA is issuing warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers for “illegal marketing” of breast binders, a compression garment worn to flatten the appearance of breasts, to children with gender dysphoria.
The agency said the letters will note that the companies are facing significant regulatory violations and how to take corrective action.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary claimed that long-term use of breast binders among children has been linked to pain and compromised lung function. Physicians say chest binding is generally considered safe when practiced with a physician’s guidance.
“Pushing transgender ideology in children is predatory. It’s wrong, and it needs to stop,” Makary said at Thursday’s press event.
The top pediatrician group in the nation reacted to Kennedy’s declaration and the proposed actions, saying they set a “dangerous precedent.”
“Unprecedented actions and harmful rhetoric [took] place today,” the American Academy of Pediatrics said in response to the HHS announcement. They went further, saying that the proposed rules were a “baseless intrusion in the patient-physician relationship.”
Lastly, the HHS announced the OCR will move to reverse a Biden-era rule that included gender dysphoria within the definition of a disability.
November’s HHS report alleged that gender-affirming care — including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender-affirming surgeries— caused significant, long-term damage.
An early version of the report, published in May, referred to itself as a “comprehensive review” of transgender care for children and teens, calling for a broader use of psychotherapy for young people with gender dysphoria rather than gender-affirming medical interventions.
The HHS referred to the final version of the report as “peer-reviewed,” but some of those who reviewed the contents are researchers who have spoken against gender affirming care.
Some major medical groups pushed back, stating that psychotherapy first is the standard approach in gender-affirming care and that additional care, such as hormonal therapies, only occurs after in-depth evaluations between patients and doctors.
“Everyone in this country should have access to the care they need to stay healthy, including transgender and nonbinary young people,” Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, senior vice president of public engagement campaigns at The Trevor Project, a nonprofit focusing on suicide prevention efforts among LGBTQ+ youth, said in a statement.
“Personal medical decisions ought to be made between patients, their doctors, and their families — not through a one-size-fits-all mandate from the federal government,” the statement continued. “The multitude of efforts we are seeing from federal legislators to strip transgender and nonbinary youth of the health care they need is deeply troubling.”
In January, Trump signed an executive order stating the U.S. would not “fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support” gender transition of those under age 19 and would “rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
Transgender adults and youth may experience extreme psychological distress due to a mismatch in their gender presentation and identity, medical groups have said. They experience significantly higher rates of suicide than the general population, but some studies suggest gender-affirming care eases those feelings of distress.
While some individuals and groups have called for a slower approach to gender-affirming care for minors, other pediatric gender care experts and advocates have said ending such care can have a harmful effect on patients’ mental health and well-being.
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.
Stock photo of a sick child. Natalia Lebedinskaia/STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Flu activity is increasing across the U.S. amid holiday travel and gatherings, according to the latest data the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC estimates there have been at least 4.6 million illnesses, 49,000 hospitalizations and 1,900 deaths from flu this season so far, according to data updated as of Dec. 19, and experts expect these numbers will continue to rise.
Public health experts previously told ABC News that many of this season’s cases are linked to a new flu strain called subclade K — a variant of the H3N2 virus, which is itself a subtype of influenza A — that has been circulating since the summer in other countries.
Of the 163 samples of H3N2 viruses collected since Sept. 28 and genetically characterized, 89% were subclade K, according to the CDC.
Additionally, three pediatric flu deaths have been reported so far this season, according to an ABC News tally.
Last season, the U.S. saw 288 children die from flu, which is the same number of children who died during the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. About 90% of kids who died from flu last year were not vaccinated, a CDC study published earlier this year found.
Meanwhile, New York state is reporting the highest number of flu cases it has ever recorded in a single week.
“The emergency room has been busy, and we’ve been following these numbers,” Dr. Darien Sutton, a board-certified emergency medical physician and ABC News medical correspondent, told “Good Morning America” on Monday. “Just a note, national numbers typically lag during the holiday, but state health department numbers are giving us insight to just how severe this flu season is.”
A total of 71,123 flu cases were reported for the week ending Dec. 20, according to the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH). This marks the highest number of flu cases in a single week since it became mandatory for states to report in 2004.
This is also 38% higher compared to the previous week which saw 51,365 infections reported, bringing the total flu cases reported in the state to 189,312.
Hospitalizations climbed by 63% in the most recent week, increasing from 2,251 to 3,666 weekly admissions, according to data from NYSDOH.
Sutton said it’s important to understand that flu is present and to take steps to reduce risk, including masking, washing hands with soap and water and getting the flu vaccine.
Currently, the CDC recommends that everyone aged 6 months and older, with rare exceptions, get a flu vaccine.
The federal health agency states on its website that getting an annual flu shot prevents millions of illnesses and flu-related doctors’ visits every year and is especially important for those at higher risk of serious complications.
“The flu is so much more than a simple cold. I am treating it in the emergency room,” Sutton said. “Understand that people are coming in feeling like they are so sick that it has to be something else than the flu.”
Sutton noted that he is seeing more people in the emergency room and more people being hospitalized but that the disease itself is not more severe, adding “it’s not like a super flu.”
(NEW YORK) — U.S. childhood and teen obesity rates have reached record-highs while adult obesity rates may be slowing, according to two new reports published early Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Researchers used measured heights and weights from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) — run by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics — to track trends over more than six decades.
In the first report, the team found that, in the most recent survey conducted between August 2021 and August 2023, 40.3% of adults aged 20 and older were found to be obese, including 9.7% with severe obesity and another 31.7% classified as overweight.
By comparison, for the survey conducted between 1988 and 1994, 22.9% adults aged 20 and older were found to be obese including 2.8% with severe obesity and 33.1% classified as overweight.
However, some of the newest estimates suggest the rapid rise seen in earlier decades may be slowing slightly.
In the 2017-2018 survey, 42.4% of adults were classified as obese, which is the highest figure ever recorded. The decrease between the two most recent surveys could be indicative of a downward trend. Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, noted that it aligns with observations of electronic medical record data.
“So, we’re seeing, for the first time in decades, that there’s like a leveling off and even maybe a slight decrease and I think this is like challenging a major shift from the long-held expectation that obesity would just be climbing year after year,” he said.
According to Brownstein, the decrease is likely due to many factors including public health policies and education about healthier lifestyles as well as medications such as GLP-1s.
It can help produce more insulin, which reduces blood sugar and therefore helps control Type 2 diabetes. It can also interact with the brain and signal a person to feel full, which — when coupled with diet and exercise — can help reduce weight in those who are overweight or obese.
Many GLP-1s have become household names, including Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound and Trulicity.
“I do think the advent of the GLP-1s are absolutely playing a role,” Brownstein said. “At that point in 2023, they weren’t as widespread as they are today. So, we expect that these factors could play even more significant role in more recent times.”
Dr. Justin Ryder, an associate professor of surgery and pediatrics at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, said he’s cautiously optimistic about the slight decrease.
However, he added that it remains to be seen whether this is a blip or if the decrease is indicative of a longer-term trend.
“We’ve seen dips in the past and typically, when they do, in the next reporting period it goes right back up,” Ryder told ABC News. “And that’s because of how the sampling is done. This is a random sample of U.S. adults.”
He noted that the random sampling makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions.
“Could it just be the people who were sampled, or is it real?” he said. “And I think we won’t know that until we have another set or a larger set of data over either the same sampling period or a couple more years from now.”
Meanwhile, a second report found that more than one in five U.S. children and teenagers have obesity, which is the highest figure ever recorded.
The survey conducted between August 2021 and August 2023 found 21.1% of U.S. children and teenagers between ages 2 and 19 have obesity, up from 5.2% during the 1971-1974 survey.
Additionally, 7% of children live with severe obesity, an increase from the 1% seen 50 years ago, according to the report.
“This is exceptionally concerning,” Dr. David Ludwig, co-director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital and professor of nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, told ABC News.
He added that in the 1970s, “children were certainly recognized [as obese] but it was the rare child, one in 20. And now we’re looking at one in five children with obesity.”
Ludwig said it had seemed for a short period of time that the prevalence of obesity was decreasing at least among 2-to-5-year-olds when rates declined from 12.1% in 2009-2010 to 9.4% in 2013-2014.
At the time, he viewed it as a “glimmer of hope” — but rates increased again and now sit at 14.9% for this age group.
“We saw that dip and we all got excited thinking that we were beginning to turn the tide,” Ludwig said. “In retrospect, that was more of a statistical aberration, more of mirage than a true glimmer of hope because the trend overall has continued upward.”
To reverse the trends among children, Ryder said the 2-to-5-year-old group will need lifestyle modifications such as healthier eating. The 6-to-11-year-old group will need similar methods although some medications are available, he said.
For children above age 12, Ryder said medications and bariatric surgery are options.
Nearly 23% of children ages 12 to 19 were considered obese in the most recent survey. Ryder said that means they meet the guidelines for intensive treatment, whether that’s lifestyle adjustments or in combination with medications or surgery.
“I think the only way that we’re going to see a downward trend in that number is if we take that adolescent group of 12- to 19-year-olds and actually start to apply the clinical practice guidelines and treat those kids seriously, offering them medications,” he said.
Ishani D. Premaratne, MD, is an integrated plastic & reconstructive surgery resident and member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
(NEW YORK) — From robotic surgery performed 7,000 miles away to the first blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease, 2025 has been a year full of medical breakthroughs.
Scientists discovered a brain implant to give some patients back their independence, prevented others from needing to take opioids and made a discovery that could help solve the organ shortage crisis.
Here are seven of the biggest innovations in the health and science space this year.
ALS patient is 1st to control iPad by thought with implantable brain sensor
A patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) became the first person in the world to control an iPad entirely by thought, neurotech company Synchron announced earlier this year.
The patient, Mark Jackson, from western Pennsylvania, controls the tablet without using his hands or voice command but rather with an implantable brain-computer interface (BCI) that translates his thoughts into actions.
At the time, Jackson told ABC News he doesn’t have use of his arms so the BCI helps him watch TV shows, listen to audiobooks, browse social media and send text messages to his children.
BCIs are sensors implanted in the brain and translate brain signals into actions outside of the body. The BCI that Jackson is using was developed by the company Synchron, which involves a device implanted into one of the veins within the brain in a minimally invasive procedure.
“This is really an exciting field, because I think the opportunities are boundless,” Dr. Leah Croll, a neurologist at Maimonides Medical Center in New York City, told ABC News. “I think that we’re going to see, moving forward, not only using BCIs to control other electronic devices, but also using them to give patients back movement, to give patients back language, really bodily functions that they weren’t able to do after whatever neurologic insult happened to them.”
Croll said it’s important, going forward, to consider legal and ethical considerations such as privacy and data storage.
She also encouraged more research and clinical trials to generate data on how patients can be protected in both research and real-world settings.
“There’s so much we haven’t figured out legally and ethically when it comes to storing personal, private data from your brain, and how is that used, and how do we manage that responsibly,” she said. “There’s a lot of bio-ethical minds at work as to how we deal with this issue and how do we make it so that a patient isn’t sort of signing away the rights to their entire brain and inner world and manage something responsibly for them that’s helpful and not harmful.”
First pill for obstructive sleep apnea may be around the corner
The first oral pill for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) could soon be available after a late-clinical showed positive results, according to pharmaceutical company Apnimed Inc.
The drug, AD109, showed “clinically meaningful and statistically significant reductions” in airway obstruction after 26 weeks, the company said in a press release in July.
OSA is a sleep disorder in which the airways become narrowed or blocked while sleeping, causing breathing to pause.
The investigational once-daily pill is a neuromuscular modulator that stabilizes upper airway muscles and prevents them collapsing, improving oxygenation.
OSA patients treated with the medication saw a nearly 50% reduction in the severity from baseline at week 26, compared to 6.8% of those in the placebo group.
The reduction was “significant” at the end of the study period, which concluded at 51 weeks. At the end of the trial, nearly 23% of participants saw “complete disease control.”
More recent trial data published in October found that a meaningful number of patients achieved complete disease control and experienced significant improvements in oxygenation measures.
First non-opioid medication in more than 20 years approved by FDA
Earlier this year, the FDA approved a new type of non-opioid pain medication to treat moderate to severe acute pain, the first of its kind on more than 20 years.
Suzetrigine, also known by the brand name, Journavx, is manufactured by biotech company Vertex Pharmaceuticals and doesn’t have addictive properties, unlike opioids often used for this type of pain.
“It’s significant in light of all the concerns about the opioid epidemic and addiction substance use disorder,” Dr. Jianguo Cheng, a professor of anesthesiology and medical director of the Cleveland Clinic Consortium for Pain at Cleveland Clinic, told ABC News.
In two clinical trials, tested on adults between ages 18 and 80, Journavx was found to reduce moderate to severe acute pain for adults from baseline by about 50% in 48 hours.
The average time to meaningful pain relief ranged from two to four hours, compared to eight hours in the placebo group, according to the trial.
Cheng, who was not involved in the clinical trials, said the studies demonstrated efficacy of the drug not compared to not only placebo, but also to weak opioids.
“Its efficacy is as good as a weak opioid. So why that is important?” Cheng said. “Because not all patients need opioids, and not all patients need a strong opioid. … If most of them do need a weak opioid, and if this can replace the weak opioid, that can be a big deal.”
Although gene-edited pig kidneys have been seen as a way to help ease the shortage of organs available for those on transplant waiting lists, many of the organs have been rejected not long after transplant surgery.
“Until 2021, we had never put one of these gene-edited pig organs into a human … so it was a bit of a mystery when we started doing the pig-to-human transplants, about what we were going to encounter,” Dr. Robert Montgomery, director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute, told ABC News.
Last month, a team at NYU Langone Health published a study in which they discovered immune reactions that may explain why these organs get rejected.
The team collected two months of data from a patient who was brain dead and had a genetically engineered pig kidney transplanted into them. The family had donated the patient’s body to science.
The team learned that pig organs were being rejected due to an immune system reaction from specific antibodies — which recognize and attach themselves to foreign substances so they can be removed from the body — and from T cells, which are white blood cells that help the body fight off germs and other unfamiliar invaders.
‘So you have this very coordinated immune response that involves antibodies and white cells, and it seems to happen somewhere between two and four weeks after the transplant,” said Montgomery, lead author of the study. “Now the good news on that front is that we can detect when it’s coming before rejection happens, and we can begin to respond, and we have very good therapeutics that can block the rejection and prevent it from causing damage.”
After rejection, the team used an FDA-approved drug combination to successfully reverse it, with no signs of permanent damage or reduced kidney function.
In a second study, Montgomery and his team looked at the body’s immune response to the pig organ in greater detail. By measuring levels of biomarkers in the blood, they were able to spot an attack up to five days before it would be visible in bodily tissue.
Montgomery said the findings could lead to a future where gene-edited pig organs are a realistic alternative to human organs.
“The pig organ can really replace a human organ and do all the things that a human organ can do, and it’s really just a matter of overcoming the immunosuppression and preventing rejection,” he said. “I think it’s going to happen … and people will be receiving xenotransplants on a regular basis. It’s going to be normalized, and it’s going to be something that will benefit thousands, first, and then millions of people around the world.”
FDA clears 1st blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease
In May, the FDA cleared the first blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer’s disease.
The test, manufactured by Fujirebio Diagnostics, is for those aged 55 and older who are already exhibiting signs and symptoms of the disease, according to the federal health agency.
The new blood test works by measuring the ratio of two proteins — pTau217 and β-amyloid 1-42 — which are found in human plasma, a component of blood. That ratio is then linked to the presence or absence of amyloid plaques in the brain to determine whether a patient is showing signs of Alzheimer’s disease.
In a clinical study, more than 91% of nearly 500 cognitively impaired patients who tested positive on the blood test had their results confirmed by other diagnostic tools.
“Essentially, it does provide a first quantitative measure of an Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis,” Dr. Jeffrey Savas, an associate professor in the department of neurology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, told ABC News. “This is very important to identify patients which could be good candidates for some of the emerging therapeutics.
Savas said the test is rapid, highly accurate and less expensive or invasive compared to previous diagnostic tests.
Because many Alzheimer’s patients need to wait months to see a specialist, the test can allow primary care providers to start the diagnostic process.
“Many neurological research centers have huge backlogs of patients, and there’s not enough physicians or nurses to really see the patients in a timely manner,” Savas said.
“Having this quick diagnostic test, which could be taken in other medical settings, should pave the way for quicker, more effective opportunities and chances for being treated in a timely manner.”
In October, the FDA cleared a second blood-based test called Elecsys pTau181, made by Roche.
Groundbreaking remote robotic surgery
A patient living in Angola with prostate cancer underwent surgery this year to cut the cancer out, but the doctor performing the surgery was 7,000 miles away in Orlando, Florida.
The patient was the first in a groundbreaking human clinical trial approved by the FDA to test transcontinental robotic telesurgery.
A team at OrlandoHealth operated on the patient via a multimillion-dollar robot with enhanced visuals and nimble controls.
Using a robot allows for the procedure to be less invasive, more precise and typically comes with a faster recovery time.
The team has said underserved areas in the U.S. and around the world could benefit from the technology by having a surgeon perform an operation even if they are not nearby.
1st-ever gene fix for rare deadly disease saves baby’s life
A baby with a rare and life-threatening metabolic disorder underwent a personalized treatment involving a first-of-its-kind type of gene-editing.
KJ Muldoon was diagnosed as a newborn with carbamoyl-phosphate synthetase 1 deficiency as a newborn. The disorder affects a bodily cycle that causes deadly levels of ammonia to build up in the blood, which can lead to severe and permanent brain damage.
If left untreated, it will typically result in the death of the patient, according to the National Organization for Rare Disorders.
The treatment for KJ involved the powerful gene-editing tool CRISPR, which allows scientists to precisely slice and repair faulty genes. Using CRISPR, the team was able to create a treatment tailored to the baby’s specific genetic mutation.
In June, KJ went home after spending the majority of his life at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Earlier this month, he reached a big milestone: taking his first steps ahead of Christmas.
