“Infected an Entire Generation”: AG Bondi Targets Trans-Affirming Health Care in Leaked Memo
The memo isn’t law, but it is the latest escalation in Trumpian efforts to wage war on trans people.
“There is a radical ideological agenda being pushed throughout every aspect of American life,” Attorney General Pamela Bondi wrote. The radical ideology of, according to Bondi, “gender.”
On April 23, Bondi issued a memorandum seeking to turn President Donald Trump’s crackdown on trans-affirming health care providers via executive order into a reality. The document was obtained and released in full by legal reporter Chris Geidner but has not been independently verified by Erin in the Morning.
It is only “an internal memorandum from the attorney general — guidance implementing an earlier anti-transgender executive order from President Donald Trump that has itself already been partially enjoined in multiple courts,” Geidner wrote. In other words, it does not hold the weight of law, but it may empower anti-trans officials to further target trans-affirming health care by zeroing in on providers—or at least give them the appearance of being emboldened, which could lead more hospitals to veer into the trend of overcompliance out of fear of potential litigation.
Titled “Preventing the Mutilation of American Children,” the memo starts by rattling off a series of false and misleading anti-trans talking points. It calls “transgenderism” a far-left “ideology” which has “infected an entire generation of children.” Here is what this means for trans Americans.
The memo bolsters disinformation about trans health care and its impacts.
Bondi’s memo says trans-affirming medical providers “profited” while their patients “struggle for the rest of their lives to overcome regret.” It cites articles from the New York Times, Fox News, and the New York Post; stories that in turn platformed anti-trans pseudoscience. One such piece, for example, cites dubious statistics assembled by Do No Harm, a Southern Poverty Law Center-designated hate group.
The memo also makes false claims about the prevalence of “empirical data” when it comes to the efficacy and safety of gender-affirming care for trans people, which categorically shows that, like any other health intervention, access to quality care leads to quality results. Countless debunks exist showing that transition “regret” is a widely mischaracterized and often overstated phenomenon. A recent survey of 90,000 trans people, for example, shows the vast majority of people are “satisfied” with receiving gender-affirming care. Most if not all major medical associations in the United States and across the globe agree that gender-affirming care is life-affirming and life-saving medical care.
It seeks to mobilize the Attorney General’s office to implement Trump’s Executive Order 14187—a.k.a. “Protecting Children From Chemical and Surgical Mutilation”—using anti-FGM laws.
The memo threatens to target trans-affirming care providers under laws prohibiting female genital mutilation, or FGM, which Trump had vowed to do in his January executive order.
“I am putting medical practitioners, hospitals, and clinics on notice: In the United States, it is a felony to perform, attempt to perform, or conspire to perform female genital mutilation (‘FGM’) on any person under the age of 18,” Bondi wrote. “That crime carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years per count. I am directing all U.S. Attorneys to investigate all suspected cases of FGM—under the banner of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ or otherwise and to prosecute all FGM offenses to the fullest extent possible.”
It is not immediately clear what Bondi is referring to, as FGM is a particular kind of procedure performed for “non-medical reasons,” as per the United Nations. Gender-affirming “bottom surgery” performed on those assigned female at birth doesn’t meet the international criteria for FGM, and most hospitals can’t or won’t perform any kind of “bottom surgery” on a trans minor. (The irreversible, medically unnecessary surgeries performed on the genitalia of intersex children, however, continue to proliferate.)
The Trump Administration also describes hormone therapies for trans people “chemical mutilation,” an echo of their rhetoric regarding FGM. It may reveal a glimpse into the GOP playbook for prosecuting HRT providers in the future.
The memo targets pharmaceutical companies that produce hormone therapies.
Bondi wrote that she is “directing the Civil Division's Consumer Protection Branch to undertake appropriate investigations of any violations of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act by manufacturers and distributors engaged in misbranding by making false claims about the on- or off-label use of puberty blockers, sex hormones, or any other drug used to facilitate a child's so-called ‘gender transition.’” In doing so, she says the federal government will pursue investigations against pharmaceutical companies under the False Claims Act “for any non-covered services related to radical gender experimentation.”
In other words, they will investigate hormone therapy manufacturers, which could result in severe supply chain disruptions nationwide. Even if this is targeted at trans youth, it affects the same medication that trans people of any age use, and could severely disrupt care.
It doubles down on the government’s WPATH blackout.
Trump’s prior executive orders ended government adherence to best practices and global standards of care for trans patients. “For the avoidance of doubt, I now expressly extend that direction to all Department employees,” Bondi wrote. “I further direct the Civil Rights Division to [...] identify and purge all Department policies, memoranda, and publications and court filings based on WPATH guidelines.”
It signals the government’s efforts to fortify anti-trans medical surveillance.
The memo says Bondi will “Establish [a] Federal and State Coalition Against Child Mutilation.” This is Bondi-speak meaning she wants the federal government and state collaborators to pool resources, creating a vast network capable of prosecuting health care providers.
“Through this Coalition, I will partner with state attorneys general to identify leads, share intelligence, and build cases against hospitals and practitioners violating federal or state laws banning female genital mutilation and other, related practices,” Bondi wrote. It cites Alabama's Vulnerable Child Compassion and Protection Act, which makes it a felony for doctors to treat trans children with hormone therapy.
It says the AG’s office will support the creation and passage of new anti-trans laws.
Bondi says she has instructed the Office of Legislative Affairs to draft legislation “creating a private right of action for children and the parents of children whose healthy body parts have been damaged by medical professionals through chemical and surgical mutilation.” This empowers private citizens and anti-trans groups to file cases against trans-affirming health care providers. The proposed legislation “will establish a long statute of limitations and retroactive liability.”
“Protecting America's children must be our top priority, whether from drug cartels, terrorists, or even our own medical community,” Bondi wrote. “Under my leadership, the Department of Justice will bring these practices to an end.”
 | A guest post by
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Today they work to outlaw the personhood of anyone they label as trans. What label will they work to outlaw tomorrow? This has to stop. We can’t allow a representative government to pick and choose which groups of people they’re going to outlaw from existence.
Please complain to your Congress people and your senators, especially if you’re a republican. We say when we make our pledge; it’s to liberty and justice for all. Well, all people include trans people, and we have to defend their individual liberty the same as we would defend our own. Because I can assure you it is.
It's always a good sign when they start using terms like "infected", essentially dehumanizing and denigrating transgender existence as a disease.