Trump vows to crack down on extreme surgical, chemical procedures for transgender-identifying minors

Former President Donald Trump on Thursday declared that if he is re-elected in 2024 he will immediately begin a crackdown on extremist sex change surgeries and hormonal treatments being given to minors around the United States. 

Trump made the announcement in a video released to various social media platforms in which he claimed that "the left-wing gender insanity being pushed on our children is an act of child abuse."

“On day one I will revoke Joe Biden’s cruel policies on so-called gender-affirming care," Trump said, describing those procedures as "giving kids puberty blockers, mutating their physical appearance, and ultimately performing surgery on minor children.”

The presidential hopeful said penalties would be levied against doctors and hospitals who participate in those ideologically driven procedures. 

“I will declare,” he said, “that any hospital or healthcare provider that participates in the chemical or physical mutilation of minor youth will no longer meet federal health and safety standards for Medicaid and Medicare, and will be terminated from the program immediately.”

The political vows from Trump come amid rising concern over surgeries and procedure performed on children who claim to be members of the opposite sex. 

Advocates have claimed that minors constitute only a small fraction of the total number of patients in the U.S. who have undergone irreversible genital surgeries and other transgender-related medical procedures.