The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced a sweeping package of proposed regulatory actions Thursday to end ‘sex-rejecting procedures’ on minors as part of President Donald Trump’s January executive order calling on the department to protect children from ‘chemical and surgical mutilation.’

‘Today, we are taking six decisive actions guided by gold standard science and the week one executive order from President Trump to protect children from chemical and surgical mutilation,’ HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said during a press conference Thursday afternoon announcing the proposed actions.

HHS is rolling out a series of policy updates and regulatory actions that effectively would defund hospitals that provide gender transition procedures, according to an HHS official. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services rolled out policy proposals that would bar hospitals from carrying out performing puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and certain surgeries on patients under 18 as a ‘condition of participation in Medicare and Medicaid programs.’ The majority of U.S. hospitals participate in Medicare and Medicaid, according to HHS. 

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released another proposed rule that would block federal Medicaid funding for procedures aimed at altering the sex of a child under the age of 18, which HHS said also will apply to federal funding to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) for the same procedures on individuals under the age of 19. 

Collectively, according to the HHS official, the actions would ensure no federal funds directly support gender transition procedures on children.

‘On my watch, HHS will stand for radical transparency and informed consent,’ said Kennedy. ‘We follow the evidence. We employ gold standard science. We honor the moral obligation to do no harm. There is divine worth in every person. It shines most brightly in our children that was commanded us to protect them.’ 

The announcement comes after HHS released a peer-reviewed report in November that found medical procedures to alter a child’s biological sex pose serious long-term dangers to children.

The report was released through the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health and found that operations working to reject a child’s biological sex — including the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgical operations — ‘are significant, long term, and too often ignored or inadequately tracked.’

The November report was an update to HHS’ May report that reviewed the evidence and best practices for children with gender dysphoria, which was criticized by a handful of medical groups for not identifying the study’s authors and allegedly misrepresenting a medical consensus on the matter. 

In another Thursday crackdown, Kennedy signed a declaration that such procedures on children do not meet professional medical standards, based on the study, which warns ‘practitioners who perform sex-rejecting procedures on minors would be deemed out of compliance with those standards.’

‘They betrayed their Hippocratic Oath to do no harm,’ Kennedy said Thursday. ‘So-called gender-affirming care has inflicted lasting physical and psychological damage on vulnerable young people. This is not medicine. It is malpractice. We’re done with junk science driven by ideological pursuits, not the well-being of children.’ 

The Food and Drug Administration additionally announced Thursday, as part of the crackdown on trans medical issues for minors, that it sent warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers behind the ‘illegal marketing of breast binders to children.’ 

At the civil rights level, HHS is moving to undo a Biden-era effort to treat gender dysphoria as a disability under federal law. A newly proposed revision to Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 would clarify that the definitions of ‘disability’ and ‘individual with a disability’ exclude ‘gender dysphoria’ that is not the result of a physical impairment. 

‘The Biden-era amendment is designated gender dysphoria as a disability, serve the commercial interests of a predatory, multibillion dollar industry that betrayed the original intention of those laws engendered widespread public resentment against those laws among the American people, and discredit the statutes in the public mind,’ Kennedy said during the press conference Thursday. 

The announcement is expected to be met with pushback from left-wing Democrats, who have continued championing ‘gender-affirming care’ for kids. 

Transgender issues became a political football toward the end of Trump’s first administration and into the Biden administration, which repeatedly declared support for the trans community and trans youth. In November, 130 Members of Congress, for example, filed an amicus brief at the Supreme Court in November for a pair of cases focused on transgender students playing on a school sports team opposite their biological sex.  

Supporters of medical procedures aimed at altering a child’s sex argue preventing such medical care can lead to depression and anxiety, and even suicide and must be protected. 

President Donald Trump has repeatedly railed against trans procedures for children as an ‘act of abuse’ since before his reelection in 2024. 

The president and the Make America Healthy Commission he established earlier in 2025 have doubled down that there are only two biological sexes, including Trump signing an executive order declaring the U.S. only recognizes male and female sexes while also ending a ‘radical and wasteful’ diversity, equity and inclusion program within the government. 

Congress may be winding down for the year, but senators are making one last push for the Trump administration to follow the law and release its trove of files and documents related to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.

Lawmakers last month passed legislation that compels the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all materials related to Epstein, and the deadline is Friday. Senate Democrats are already prepared to act in case the DOJ doesn’t follow through.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., warned that if the administration withholds documents, or abuses ‘narrow exemptions to hide the truth,’ there would be legal and political consequences.

‘Stop hiding, stop delaying,’ Schumer said. ‘Come clean with the American people. And if you don’t, the question will only get louder and louder and louder. Trump, ‘What the hell are you trying to hide?’’

Trump signed the bill shortly after it passed unanimously in the Senate — at Schumer’s behest — and it easily glided through the House.

Prior to the vote, Trump shifted his position to backing the release of the documents after a firestorm erupted in Congress, particularly the House, for several months after the FBI announced that it ‘is the determination of the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation that no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted,’ of materials related to the late financier after reviewing troves of documents in the DOJ’s possession.

The bill requires that the DOJ release all unclassified records related to Epstein, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, known associates and entities linked to Epstein and Maxwell, internal DOJ decision-making on the Epstein case, records on destroying or tampering with documents, and all documents on his detention and death.

There are some instances where the DOJ could choose to withhold certain documents, including materials that reveal victims’ identities or medical files, child sex abuse materials, information that could jeopardize active investigations, images of graphic death or injury, or classified national security information.

But the law lacks an actual enforcement mechanism to force Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the desired documents. Still, Republicans are confident that the DOJ will follow through.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital that he ‘voted to release the Epstein files every single time that we’ve had an opportunity to do it across administrations.’

‘I think I presume good faith on the part of the DOJ,’ he said. ‘I mean, listen, the president signed the law. I mean, he’s called on them to be released. So I think I will be shocked if they didn’t release them. We’ll find out pretty soon.’

Sen. Eric Schmitt, R-Mo., told Fox News Digital that he believed Congress had been clear about its demands for the files and had ‘no reason to believe that they wouldn’t submit or provide the information.’

When asked about Schumer’s legal threats, he called the top Senate Democrat a ‘liar.’

‘That’s my response to anything Chuck Schumer says,’ Schmitt said. ‘He’s one of the worst senators in the history of the country.’

Other Republicans are more apathetic about the files’ expected release but are still intrigued by what new information they could hold.

‘I don’t really care. I’m as curious as anybody else,’ Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital. ‘Do I think there are going to be bombshells? We’ll see what we’re going to get. It’s not my issue. It’s not my top priority. It’s way down there on the list.’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday called for the U.S. and other allies to respond to bellicose ‘signals’ from Russia.

‘Today, we again heard signals from Moscow that they are preparing to make next year a year of war. These signals are not only for us. It is crucial that our partners see them, and not only see them but also respond — especially partners in the United States, who often say that Russia wants to end the war,’ Zelenskyy asserted in a post on X.

Fox News Digital reached out to the White House for comment.

‘Yet the signals coming from Russia are the exact opposite, taking the form of official orders to their army. This Russian mindset must be recognized — and acted upon. When Russia is in this mindset, it will also undermine diplomacy — seeking, through diplomatic language and pressure over specific points in documents — to merely mask its desire to destroy Ukraine and Ukrainians, and the desire to legitimize Russia’s theft of our land. And then come other countries in Europe, which someone in Russia might one day label their so‑called ‘historical lands,” he asserted in the post.

‘Real protection is needed against this Russian case history of madness, and we will continue working with all partners to ensure that protection is in place. Security measures are needed, financial measures are needed — including actions on Russian assets — political measures are needed. And the courage of all partners is required: to see the truth, acknowledge the truth, and act accordingly. I want to thank everyone who supports Ukraine,’ his post concluded.

Zelenskyy also conveyed the message in a Ukrainian-language video.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared during a Defense Ministry board meeting on Wednesday that Russia will accomplish its goals, either through diplomacy or military force.

‘The goals of the special military operation will undoubtedly be achieved. We would prefer to accomplish this and address the root causes of the conflict through diplomatic means. However, if the opposing side and its foreign patrons refuse to engage in substantive dialogue, Russia will achieve the liberation of its historical lands by military means. The task of creating and expanding a security buffer zone will also be carried out consistently,’ Putin said, according to a Kremlin transcript.

Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a staunch proponent of U.S. support for Ukraine, asserted in a post on X, ‘Again… the U.S. should send 200 long-range and extremely accurate cruise missiles to Ukraine. Maybe then, Putin will get serious and seek peace. Putin started this war, and he’ll stop this war once he realizes he cannot win and that the cost of war is too high.’

President Donald Trump’s administration has been attempting to help broker peace between Russia and Ukraine.

A pair of conservative lawmakers is launching a new group in the House of Representatives to ‘protect Western civilization in the United States,’ according to one of its founders.

Reps. Keith Self, R-Texas, and Chip Roy, R-Texas, are starting the ‘Sharia Free America Caucus,’ Fox News Digital learned first.

‘Anytime you go to a fight, you bring as many friends with you as you can. I’m a military guy,’ Self told Fox News Digital. ‘So what we need to do is build this caucus now so that we can start educating the American people to the dangers of Sharia in the United States.’

Self said it was ‘fundamentally incompatible with the U.S. Constitution.’

The caucus also has support in the Senate from Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., who Self said he hoped could help push some of its legislative goals forward through both chambers.

Among the bills they’re hoping to push is a ban on foreign nationals who ‘adhere to Sharia’ from entering the U.S., and a measure that would designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization.

‘America is facing a threat that directly attacks our Constitution and our Western values: the spread of Sharia law,’ Roy said in a statement. ‘From Texas to every state in this constitutional republic, instances of Sharia adherents masquerading as ‘refugees’ — and in many cases, sleeper cells connected to terrorist organizations — are threatening the American way of life.’

Sharia broadly refers to a code of ethics and conduct used by devout Muslims. Sharia law more specifically often refers to the criminal code used in non-secular Islamic countries, like Iran.

In its most extreme cases, such as when ISIS-controlled parts of the Middle East, charges like blasphemy could carry the death penalty.

But guarantees of religious freedom in the Constitution mean that Sharia law can not be carried out on any governmental level in the U.S.

The Republicans’ caucus appears largely symbolic in nature, but it’s evidence of the continued culture war raging in the country.

Self also pointed to countries like the U.K. and France, where growing unrest between Muslim refugees and the current populace has dominated headlines in recent years.