The Trump administration has laid down the law in letters to all 50 states, warning that state welfare agencies must not remove children from their family homes based solely on their parents’ refusal to support their child identifying as the opposite sex. It’s sad this letter is even necessary.
Parents are the ones who provide care for their kids, which includes education and health. If they don’t want their kids to make irreversible, life-altering decisions until they are adults, that’s more than reasonable. The fact that governments, both local and state, want to stick their noses into how parents raise their families is clear overreach.
The Health and Human Services Department’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF) sent the letter and reinforced that state child welfare agencies must base decisions concerning child removal on objective evidence of abuse or the imminent risk of serious harm as explained under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA).
Why was the letter necessary? Several disturbing reports have surfaced showing states yanking kids away from their parents after the parents refused to support their child’s self-identification as a different sex. It’s hard to believe this is even an issue we’re discussing in 2026. Biology has clearly settled whether boys can be girls or vice versa since God first put human beings on the planet.
“At his State of the Union address, President Trump shared the story of Sage Blair, a young woman whom school officials separated from her parents at the age of 14 after attempting to secretly ‘transition’ her to a male,” Admiral Brian Christine, M.D., assistant secretary for health at HHS, recalled in a recent video message posted on social media.
“Surely, we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will,” President Donald Trump said during his address. “We must ban it and we must ban it immediately.”
“Our President exposed the reality of what is taking place in some of our schools across the country. In response, HHS is sending a clear and unequivocal message to all 50 states about cases like that of Sage Blair: Acknowledging biological reality and exercising sincerely held religious beliefs should not constitute child abuse or neglect under federal law,” Christine explained.
ACF published a statement warning states not to interpret federal definitions with a broad stroke that infringes on parental rights or leads to inappropriate and unnecessary foster placements by taking kids from their homes when there is no evidence of abuse or neglect. The statement also reminded states that removing a child from the home based only on the religious beliefs of the parents raises significant constitutional concerns, specifically the violation of the free exercise of religion.
“Parents have the right to raise their children according to their sincerely held religious beliefs and moral convictions,” ACF Assistant Secretary Alex J. Adams explained, cautioning that “when states overstep their bounds, ACF will take action to deter inappropriate policies that drive unnecessary interactions with child welfare systems.”
“A state’s decision to break up a family cannot be based solely on a parent’s objection to radical gender ideology or irreversible, sex-rejecting medical interventions,” Adams continued. “Our letter encourages states to adopt clearer definitions of abuse and neglect that explicitly protect parents’ rights to raise children consistent with their biological sex.”
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