Calling it junk science, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says medical gender treatments for children are neither safe nor effective.

The administration is seeking to end the use of puberty-blocking drugs and transition surgeries on children, claiming the medical community is putting profits over the long-term health of patients.

“So-called gender affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people,” Mr. Kennedy said Thursday at a press event where he announced a set of proposed rule changes. “This is not medicine, this is malpractice.”

Mr. Kennedy is aiming to implement policy changes detailed by Mr. Trump in a January executive order titled, “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”

One rule would prohibit any hospital that receives Medicaid and Medicare payments from offering such procedures to children. That would cover almost any hospital in the country. A second rule would bar Medicare or Medicaid funding from being used to pay for the procedures.

In another action, the FDA announced it is issuing warning letters to 12 manufacturers of breast binders that flatten the chest, claiming that it is illegal to market them to children with gender dysphoria.

The Department of Health and Human Services is also moving to reverse the Biden administration’s move to classify gender dysphoria as a disability.

Mr. Kennedy leaned on a landmark report the Trump administration commissioned on pediatric gender medicine that was published last month. The Gender Dysphoria Report was penned by a team of scholars who are all skeptical or opponents of providing minors with medical gender treatments.

“Sex rejection procedures rob children of their futures,” Mr. Kennedy said.

An activist who opposes gender transition care for children, Chloe Cole, spoke in favor of the changes at Thursday’s event. Ms. Cole spoke of being given puberty blockers at 13 and undergoing a breast removal at 15.  She says she was pressured into believing she was a male born into a female body. She began detransitioning at 17.

“Because of the moral failings of my doctors, I have forever lost significant parts of my identity,” Ms. Cole said.

Mr. Kennedy’s proposed rules will not be finalized until after a 60-day period for public comment.

The Human Right Campaign, which advocates for transgender rights, is urging activists to speak up during the comment period. The group claims the rules would interfere in decisions best left to families and doctors.

“The Trump administration is relentless in denying health care to this country and especially the transgender community,” the president of the Human Rights Campaign, Kelley Robinson, said in a statement.

“Make no mistake: These rules aim to completely cut off medically necessary care from children no matter where in this country they live,” Ms. Robinson continued.

The new rules are expected to face legal challenges. Mr. Kennedy says he is confident the administration will win any lawsuits.