Amicus Briefs

The American College of Pediatricians partners with like-minded organizations to draft Amicus Briefs addressing issues related to the health and well-being of children and their families.

2025

March 5, 2025

The case of Texas v. Kennedy, Case No. 24-40568, pending in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, is one of several cases where States and medical organizations have challenged Biden era regulations issued under Section 1557, or the anti-discrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act. Under these regulations, doctors and covered entities “must not … Deny or limit health services sought for purpose of gender transition or other gender-affirming care that the covered entity would provide to an individual for other purposes if the denial or limitation is based on an individual's sex assigned at birth, gender identity, or gender otherwise recorded.” 45 C.F.R. 92.206(b)(4). As a result, a doctor who will perform a double mastectomy or hysterectomy as part of cancer treatment must offer and perform those procedures for a gender confused 16-year-old girl for “gender transition” purposes. The same is true for the proscription of puberty blockers and cross/wrong sex hormones. Such a mandate not only violates a physician’s sound medical judgment and rights of conscience, but the overwhelming scientific evidence establishes that such “gender-affirming care” harms and sterilizes vulnerable children while doing nothing to address or alleviate the mental health distress these children often experience. Rather than ban such procedures for minors as many states and European countries have elected to do based on the scientific evidence available, the Biden HHS chose to push forward with a political pathway that harms kids who need psychiatric therapy and the chance to simply grow up. It is this “watchful waiting” with proper mental health counsel that results in 80-95% of children desisting in feelings of sexual incongruence and becoming comfortable in their natal sex. Children should be treated with compassion and allowed to go through natural puberty as their bodies are designed to do and should not be victims of experimental procedures being pushed by these regulations and other organizations who consciously choose to ignore the medical evidence available on how to care for children with gender dysphoria.

As a result, the American College of Pediatricians has filed this amicus brief before the court to highlight the scientific evidence that undermines the Regulations and the destructive pathway they mandate. There are several court cases addressing this issue from multiple perspectives and in each such case, the evidence needs to be presented that children need mental health counseling and the chance to allow their bodies to develop naturally and not be subjected to experimental and off-label drug cocktails and surgical interventions that leave them sterile and in need of long-term treatments for the rest of their life.

US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit - Texas vs Kennedy