In a major escalation against transgender rights, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has directed Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys to investigate transgender medical interventions for minors, according to a leaked DOJ memo confirmed by a department spokesperson.
The memo, dated April 22, 2025, outlines a sweeping series of new policies that reframe gender-affirming medical care as criminal behavior, setting the stage for an unprecedented federal crackdown on healthcare providers and families who support transgender youth.
Bondi’s memo, titled “Preventing the Mutilation of American Children,” invokes a deeply ideological tone, referring to gender-affirming care as a “radical ideological agenda” and accusing doctors of “exploiting” children. Citing high-profile cases like Chloe Cole’s de-transitioning story, Bondi vowed that the DOJ would “act decisively to protect our children.”
Among the most alarming directives laid out in the memo:
- Prosecuting Gender-Affirming Care Under Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) Laws: DOJ attorneys are now instructed to investigate gender-affirming surgeries under statutes originally designed to prohibit FGM, despite the critical medical, ethical, and consent-based differences.
- Criminal Investigations Into Medication Use: The DOJ will investigate manufacturers and healthcare providers for the off-label use of puberty blockers and hormone therapy—standard treatments for gender dysphoria for decades.
- Rejecting Established Medical Standards: DOJ staff are now barred from citing or relying on the WPATH Standards of Care, long recognized by major medical organizations worldwide, labeling them as “junk science.”
- Building a State-Federal Coalition: Bondi is assembling an “Attorney General’s Coalition Against Child Mutilation” to coordinate nationwide legal attacks against hospitals and practitioners.
- Pushing for New Laws: The DOJ will work to pass legislation that would allow children or their parents to sue providers who offered them gender-affirming care.
This aggressive federal strategy comes on the heels of President Trump’s January 28 executive order banning federal funds for institutions providing transgender care, which has already disrupted services for many families across the country. Although a federal court temporarily blocked that order, pending appeals and an eventual Supreme Court decision loom large.
For transgender individuals and their allies, the consequences of these actions are dire. Gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, has been shown in numerous peer-reviewed studies to dramatically reduce rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide among transgender youth. The American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Psychiatric Association have all affirmed that such care can be life-saving.
Now, transgender young people and their families face renewed fear: fear that essential healthcare could be criminalized, that doctors could be prosecuted for following medical best practices, and that the very legitimacy of transgender identities could be erased under the law.
Bondi’s memo signals not just a legal assault, but a cultural one, one that frames trans existence itself as a threat to be eradicated. It casts transgender youth not as individuals deserving compassion and support, but as victims of a supposed ideological conspiracy.
The trans community is no stranger to political scapegoating. But this coordinated effort, reaching from the executive branch to state legislatures to the courts, marks one of the most sweeping federal campaigns against transgender people in modern U.S. history.
As lawsuits move through the courts and the Supreme Court prepares to rule later this year on the constitutionality of state bans on gender-affirming care, the outcome will have profound and lasting impacts.
For now, transgender individuals, their families, and their allies are bracing for an uncertain future, while advocates across the country vow to continue fighting for the basic human rights, dignity, and survival of transgender youth.
TransVitae will continue to follow this story closely and provide updates as this developing situation unfolds.
