The statement provided to HRC is a departure from a comment made by a spokesperson for the White House just last week, which said that sex-change surgeries “should be limited to adults.” In a rhetorical shift, the new statement instead says that sex-change surgeries are “typically reserved for adults” but that the administration opposes legal restrictions.
For girls, sex-change surgeries can include the removal of healthy breasts and ovaries along with genital surgery to add prosthetic genitalia that appear male. For boys, sex-change surgeries can include the addition of prosthetic breasts along with castration and genital surgery that makes the boy appear female. Some surgeries, such as castration and the removal of ovaries, render the person infertile.
A study published in August 2023 estimated that patients aged 12 through 18 accounted for nearly 8% of transgender surgeries between 2016 and 2020 in the United States — about 3,678 surgeries in total. This included more than 3,200 chest surgeries and more than 400 genital surgeries to facilitate a sex change.
Jay Richards, the director of the DeVos Center for Life, Religion, and Family at the conservative Heritage Foundation, told CNA there’s been a “massive increase” in transgender medical interventions on minors in recent years and disputed the administration’s claim that sex-change surgeries are “typically reserved for adults” under current practice.
“We know that … a few thousand American kids have undergone these procedures already,” he said.
The Biden administration issued its statement following a weeklong campaign by HRC and other advocacy groups that requested the administration openly support the legality of sex-change surgeries for minors. HRC President Kelley Robinson welcomed the clarification on the White House’s support for those surgeries.