After President Trump issued Executive Order 14187, which refers to Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) revoked the guidance it issued about gender-affirming care, particularly the HHS Notice and Guidance on Gender Affirming Care, Civil Rights, and Patient Privacy.
The Executive Order ended the United States financing, sponsoring, endorsing, supporting, and helping kids shift from one sex to another. President Trump is determined to enforce all legislation that forbid or restrict gender transitioning operations. He also approved Executive Order 14168, which is about Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. This established the U.S. policy to only acknowledge two sexes, male and female. The cancellation of prior OCR guidance on gender-affirming care supports the two Executive Orders.
OCR issued the guidance in March 2022 during the Biden administration. The guidance stated that the HHS acknowledged that clinically appropriate gender-affirming care promotes the mental and physical well-being of those under 18 years old. The guidance wanted to make sure that minors can obtain gender-affirming care with no prejudice. OCR mentioned in the guidance that it would impose Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which forbids prejudice of sexual orientation and gender identification in medical programs and projects that get financing from the HHS.
The 2022 guidance likewise informed HIPAA-covered entities that HIPAA forbids the sharing of protected health information (PHI) associated with gender-affirming care with no valid permission from a patient except in minimal instances (for treatment, payment, or medical care procedures), and that the HIPAA Privacy Rule allows, but doesn’t call for, sharing of PHI associated with gender affirming care when demanded by a different regulation. On February 20, 2025, OCR, as per the command of Acting OCR Director Anthony Archeval, formally revoked the 2022 guidance. Archeval additionally stated OCR is going to issue another guidance guarding whistleblowers who do something associated with making sure the order is followed.
The cancellation notifies the concerned community that the HHS OCR no longer holds the 2022 OCR Notice and Guidance as policies. The revocation is an important step to straighten civil rights and health data privacy implementation with a central Administration policy that acknowledges only two sexes: male and female.”
Although the 2022 guidance was canceled, the Final Rule given by the Biden administration seeks to reinforce the privacy of reproductive healthcare or the HIPAA Privacy Rule to Support Reproductive Healthcare Privacy. It created an extensive definition of reproductive health information, that consists of data associated with gender-affirming care. The Reproductive Healthcare Privacy final rule remains effective.
