Aug. 11 (UPI) -- On Tuesday, the Trump administration finalized rule changes that ban the use of Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program funds for gender identity healthcare for children.
The new rule, the administration's latest move to bar access to such healthcare, goes into effect Oct. 13.
Trump lauded the changes in a post on social media, calling gender-affirming healthcare measures "barbaric."
"Just think about all the young, innocent and perhaps confused children who will be spared!" he wrote.
In a statement, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. called the healthcare affected by the new rules "sex-rejecting procedures," which he said "carry serious risks and can cause irreversible harm."
U.S. medical organizations have denounced the Trump administration's moves against gender identity healthcare, saying they jeopardize children's health. Studies have shown that access to gender-identity care can improve mental health outcomes, the National Alliance on Mental Illness said.
Human Rights Campaign President Kelley Robinson said in a statement that the Trump administration is "terrorizing trans youth and their families," The Hill reported.
"Every young person is entitled to the healthcare that they,their parents and their medical providers agree that they need, without politicians interfering with these important and highly personal decisions," Robinson said.
Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, senior vice president of public engagement campaigns for the Trevor Project, said research by the organization found thetype of care restricted by the new rules is associated with lower rates of depression and suicide among transgender youth, The Hill reported.
"Personal medical decisions should be made by individual patients, their doctors and their families," Heng-Lehtinen said. "Not by a one-size-fits-all mandate from the federal government. While there have been many recent headlines about transgender healthcare, this type of care is nothing new; it has been provided for decades, is based on scientific research and is supported by all of our country's leading medical and mental health associations."
States that allow gender identity healthcare through Medicaid and CHIP will need to finance it themselves under the new rules.
Gender identity healthcare may include many different measures. Gender-affirming surgeries are very rare among minors (and often apply to cisgender rather than transgender youth), but the rule also includes puberty blockers and hormones.
Gender identity healthcare includes mental health and medical treatments meant to help people bring their gender expression -- including voice and appearance -- in line with their gender identity, CNBC reported. It applies not just to transgender people but also to those who are cisgender, intersex or nonbinary.
The rule change does not include federal coverage of mental health services for children.