National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya praised Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s announcement Thursday of proposed regulatory actions aimed at ending sex-rejecting medical procedures for children.
He told Newsmax on Thursday the move is a decisive break from what he described as a long-standing distortion of scientific evidence.
Bhattacharya told "Carl Higbie FRONTLINE" that Kennedy's directive undercuts what he characterized as a false narrative that children faced a heightened risk of suicide if they did not undergo gender-transition-related medical interventions.
"What has happened over the years is that there's been a lie told that there's a tremendous amount of evidence that if you don't trans your child, that the child will commit suicide," Bhattacharya said. "Well, that's just simply false."
Bhattacharya pointed to government and international reviews, including an HHS report released last month, which he said found no scientific basis for claims that medical transition reduces suicide risk among minors.
"There's been report after report in the U.K., in Scandinavia, and now the United States — a fantastic HHS report that demonstrates that it was never established scientifically," he said. "Today, we shattered that illusion."
Kennedy's announcement outlined steps for HHS to move away from policies that supported or permitted irreversible medical interventions for minors experiencing gender dysphoria.
Although the department has not finalized the regulations, the proposal signals a shift in federal health policy toward greater caution and parental involvement.
Bhattacharya said the scientific principle guiding the administration's approach should be to avoid harm, particularly when treating children.
"What we always should have done is do no harm," he said. "We should have protected these kids by giving them the care they need, the therapy, sort of like the normal kind of parenting that you would expect."
He also urged parents to be skeptical of claims that medical transition is necessary for a child's safety.
"Don't let your pediatrician get alone with the kid in a room and essentially tell them that they need to have to be trans in order to be safe," Bhattacharya said. "The scientific evidence doesn't warrant that."
Bhattacharya said the HHS report documents how medical institutions embraced what he called a flawed consensus.
He compared the period to other controversial chapters in medical history.
"We're going to look back at this episode in history of essentially mutilating kids, and we're going to say, 'Well, it's just like the frontal lobotomies,'" he said.
"It's a dark moment in medical history, and I'm really, really proud to be part of an administration that has put an end to it," he concluded.
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