HHS Declares ‘There Are Only Two Sexes’ in Major Policy Shift, Answers What a ‘Woman’ Is
After years of nationwide debate, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) set the record straight on Wednesday, reaffirming a binary definition of sex, aligning with an executive order signed by President Trump on his first day in office.
The updated guidance states that “there are only two sexes, female and male,” based on the biological function of producing eggs or sperm. It further clarifies that an individual’s sex is “determined genetically at conception” and is “unchangeable and determined by objective biology,” as reported by The Post Millennial.
Citing Trump’s executive order, “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” HHS emphasized that these clarifications are vital for maintaining the integrity of medical research, safeguarding women’s rights and preserving public trust in government institutions.
“This administration is bringing back common sense and restoring biological truth to the federal government,” Kennedy said in a press release. “The prior administration’s policy of trying to engineer gender ideology into every aspect of public life is over.”
The updated guidance reflects this position, stating: “The Department has long recognized that the biological differences between females and males require sex-specific practices in medicine and research to ensure optimal health outcomes and rigorous research, including by considering sex as a biological variable,” the guidance states, per TPM.
“Recognizing the immutable and biological nature of sex is essential to ensure the protection of women’s health, safety, private spaces, sports, and opportunities.”
Additionally, HHS rejected the notion that medical interventions such as hormone treatments or surgeries can alter an individual’s sex.
“The use of hormones or surgical interventions does not change a person’s sex because such actions do not change the type of gamete that the person’s reproductive system has the biological function to produce,” the guidance states.
“Rare disorders of sexual development do not constitute a third sex because these disorders do not lead to the production of a third gamete.”
HHS went further by defining “female” as “a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing eggs” and “male” as “a person of the sex characterized by a reproductive system with the biological function of producing sperm.”
Additionally, “woman” is defined as “an adult human female,” and “man” as “an adult human male.”
This policy change follows recent debates over gender ideology, particularly after several Biden administration officials, including Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, declined to provide a definition for “woman.” During her confirmation hearing, Justice Jackson stated she was “not a biologist” when asked to define the term.
The new definitions could have wide-ranging implications for federal policies, including Title IX protections, medical research funding and legal classifications in government documentation.
HHS stressed that recognizing biological sex distinctions is necessary for “scientific inquiry, public safety, morale, and trust in government itself.”
This announcement marks a significant departure from Biden-era policies, which allowed for more fluid definitions of gender identity in federal documents and healthcare guidelines. With this update, the federal government is taking a firm stance on the issue, reinforcing the importance of biological sex distinctions in law and policy.
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