In footage released by the Daily Wire, American Medical Association president, Dr. Bobby Mukkamala, makes misleading comments about sex-rejecting procedures for minors, and suggests that the organization rubber stamps gender medicine policies arrived at by “experts.” In a conversation with whistleblower Dr. Eithan Haim and Michigan Rep. Brad Paquette, Dr. Mukkamala asserts that puberty blockers are reversible and mistakenly conflates suicide and suicidality when asserting that the suicide rate among trans-identified youth is greater than 50%. Dr. Mukkamala also makes misleading claims about rates of detransition and regret, asserting that the highest regret rate is only 2%, despite researchers asserting that the true detransition rate is unknown because of methodological constraints. Alarmingly, the AMA president also implies that the organization only relies on “affirming care” experts to interpret the science supporting medical transition. “I don’t look at them. I rely on a specialty society to look at them and then give us their opinion of them...I defer to the experts” Mukkamala said.
In City Journal, Leor Sapir explains how new videos featuring the president of the American Medical Association illustrate what he calls “the Broken Chain of Trust” in medicine, particularly when it comes to pediatric gender medicine. Sapir goes on to describe how medical group leaders defer to ostensible experts with clear conflicts of interest, who end up “deliberately or out of incompetence—mislead[ing] their colleagues.” Troublingly, AMA president Dr. Bobby Mukkamala mistakenly conflates rates of suicide and suicidality among trans-identified youth, and displays an ignorance of the principles of evidence-based medicine. Dr. Bobby Mukkamala also recommends that Michigan Rep. Brad Paquette speak with gender doctor, Jesse Krikorian. In conversations with Paquette, Dr. Krikorian, an “affirming care” expert, displays similar ignorance of how evidence is evaluated within an EBM paradigm. Dr. Krikorian did not understand the nature of systematic reviews, and recommended Paquette read individual studies for assessing the overall quality of evidence. One of the reasons systematic reviews consistently find “low certainty” evidence for medical transition is because of the severe methodological limitations of many studies. “Mukkamala has a duty to ensure his organization does not support harmful treatments that lack basis in science and medical ethics—something, so far, he’s failed to do” Sapir concludes.
After announcing it was terminating California’s grant last week, the Administration of Children and Families (ACF) has issued letters to forty U.S. states and six territories demanding that “gender ideology” be removed from Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP) materials. PREP grants are used to fund programs on adolescent health and sex education. States and territories have until October 25th, 2025, to willingly comply with ACF’s demands or else they risk losing funds. "This action reflects the Trump Administration's ongoing commitment to protecting children from attempts to indoctrinate them with delusional ideology," the press release from HHS said.
A new report by UCLA’s Williams Institute estimates the population of adults and youth in the United States that identify as transgender, finding that trans-identification is significantly more common among youth and young adults than older age cohorts. The report found that among Americans thirteen and older, roughly 2.8 million people identify as transgender, with 2.1 million being adults and 724,000 being youth. Interestingly, though, the report found that 76% of the trans-identified population thirteen and older are under 35 years of age, and 25% are between the ages of 13-17. The report echoes similar findings by the psychologist Jean Twenge, who noticed that over the last decade, trans-identification has increased dramatically among those under 35, but without a corresponding increase among older generations.
According ABC News, since Trump retook office in January at least seventeen hospital systems across nine states have stopped providing sex-rejecting interventions for patients under 18. Among the latest to make announcements are Kaiser Permanente—which operates over forty hospitals throughout the U.S.—and Children's National Hospital in Washington, D.C. While critics of the hospitals’ actions, like former WPATH president, Dr. Marci Bowers, maintain that “affirming care” has decades of worth of supporting evidence, others disagree based on the quality and reliability of the evidence-base. "Clinicians have quietly recognized for years that the evidence base for these interventions in minors is weak," psychiatrist Dr. Kristopher Kaliebe told ABC News. "There's no strong proof that they improve mental health, and we simply don't know the long-term outcomes."
Last Friday, Alaska’s state medical board unanimously voted in favor of proposed regulations that would expand the state’s definition of unprofessional medical conduct to include providing sex-rejecting interventions for minors. Specifically, the language would cover both hormonal and surgical interventions for persons under eighteen years of age. The resolution will now head to Alaska’s Department of Law for review, followed by a 30-day public comment period. If the resolution is ultimately passed, providers who violate the regulation could face professional sanctions, including licensure loss.
The Office of Personnel Management has sent a letter to carriers informing them that sex-rejecting procedures will no longer be covered in the Federal Employee Health Benefits program for plan year 2026. This comes as a reversal from guidance issued earlier this year which previously allowed carriers to cover sex-rejecting procedures for adults. Counseling services for gender dysphoria will still be covered, and individuals currently undergoing sex-rejecting interventions can qualify for continued coverage.
Joseph Figliolia
Policy Analyst
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