Congressman Bob Onder, R-Missouri, reintroduced the Chloe Cole Act last week to ban the sex-transition of minors and implement legal pathways to hold medical professionals accountable for such actions.
“As a member of Congress, a physician, a parent, and a concerned American, I am committed to safeguarding the health and well-being of our nation’s children. That is why I am proud to reintroduce the Chloe Cole Act of 2026,” Onder said in a statement.
“The importance of this legislation is non-negotiable. This is a landmark bill that will permanently end one of the most dangerous and barbaric medical practices in modern history.”
The bill is named after national activist and commentator Chloe Cole, who de-transitioned only a year after undergoing a double mastectomy at 15 years old.
Cole told Fox News she never would have gone through this procedure if state and federal law had established the protections Onder’s bill proposes.
“While we’ve made significant strides in raising awareness and enacting protections in recent years, the fight is far from over,” Cole said in a statement. “Too many children remain at risk of irreversible harm from puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and surgical procedures pushed on them before they can fully understand the consequences. …
“Reintroducing this bill is a vital step in our mission to ensure that no minor in America ever endures the kind of lasting, irreparable damage I experienced. We must finish what we’ve started and safeguard the next generation from these experimental and barbaric treatments.”
Sex-change procedures include puberty blockers, hormones and genital surgeries, Onder explained, adding that such drugs hinder bone and neurological development, as well as risk the likelihood of infertility.
“Why are these transgender clinics so eager to get their clutches on these poor, confused children? Well, I can only conclude it’s their own sick ideology and their own desire for profit among sex hormones and even surgery,” Onder said, calling the procedures “medicalized child abuse.”
More than 62,000 sex-change prescriptions were written for children between 2019 and 2023, according to research from Stop the Harm database, Fox reports. During the same window, more than 5,500 children underwent surgical sex-alterations and more than 8,500 took either puberty blockers or hormones, Fox reports.
The Department of Justice commissioned Onder and fellow U.S. Rep. Mike Kennedy, R-Utah, to sponsor the bill, following President Trump’s executive order, “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation.”
At the State of the Union Tuesday, Trump recognized Sage Blair, a young woman who underwent a social sex transition at 14 years old, unknown to her parents, and suffered significant sexual abuse afterward. He praised her for her “great bravery” and said his administration stands for “common sense.”
“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,” he said. “We must ban it and we must ban it immediately.”
