(NEW YORK) — Stocks ticked downward in midday trading on Thursday, wiping out a rally earlier in the day driven by blockbuster earnings from chip giant Nvidia and a stronger-than-expected jobs report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell about 60 points, or 0.1%, while the S&P 500 declined 0.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell 0.3%.
Those returns marked a reversal from highs earlier in the day. Previously, the Dow had risen 1.2%, while the S&P 500 had jumped 1.8% and the Nasdaq had spiked 2.5%.
Shares of Nvidia, the $4.7 trillion juggernaut behind many of the chips fueling artificial-intelligence products, ticked down 0.1% in midday trading after having surged upward earlier in the day.
A stock market selloff over recent days underscored the uncertainty looming over the economy as some investors warned of an AI bubble. The earnings blowout from Nvidia late Wednesday appeared to rebuke such concerns, however, temporarily reviving enthusiasm for an AI trade that has propelled much of the market gains this year.
The S&P 500 has soared 15% in 2025, while the Dow has climbed 10%. The Nasdaq has increased 19% this year.
Investors also appeared to draw optimism from a jobs report on Thursday morning, which showed far more hiring than economists’ expected. The fresh data defied a hiring slowdown that took hold over the summer.
The U.S. added 119,000 jobs in September, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure marked an acceleration from the previous month, and it exceeded an average of nearly 100,000 jobs added per month over the first half of 2025.
The report included a downward revision for the month of August, however, slashing performance from 22,000 jobs gained that month to 4,000 jobs lost.
An earnings release from Walmart on Thursday morning also exceeded revenue expectations, offering some reassurance about the health of consumer spending.
Inflation has picked up in recent months while hiring has ratcheted down, posing a risk of an economic double-whammy known as “stagflation.”
Those economic conditions have put the Federal Reserve in a bind, since the central bank must balance a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment.
In recent months, concern has tilted toward strain in the labor market, prompting the central bank to reduce interest rates a quarter of a percentage point at each of its last two meetings.
On Thursday morning, markets appeared to digest the news as favorable toward a potential interest rate cut at the Fed’s meeting next month. The odds of a quarter-point rate cut ticked up from 33% on Wednesday afternoon to 43% on Thursday morning, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the Sunshine Summit opening dinner at Disney’s Contemporary Resort on November 12, 2015 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Tom Benitez – Pool/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s funeral is being held at Washington National Cathedral on Thursday, with several high-profile political figures attending the service for the man considered one of the most influential vice presidents in U.S. history.
Former President George W. Bush, who Cheney served for two terms, delivered a eulogy. Bush described the moment he decided to choose Cheney as his vice president.
“At such a moment, most in this position would have jumped at the chance. But Dick stayed detached and he analyzed it. Before I made my decision, he insisted on giving me a complete rundown of all the reasons I should not choose him,” Bush said.
“In the end, I trusted my judgment. I remember my dad’s words when I told him what I was planning. He said, ‘Son, you couldn’t pick a better man,'” Bush said.
Bush said in 2004, Cheney offered to resign if Bush wanted to replace him. Bush said he thought about it, but “after four years of seeing how he treated people, how he carried responsibility, how he handled pressure and took the hits, I arrived back at the conclusion that they do not come any better than Dick Cheney.”
“On that score, history should record that I chose my vice president not once, but twice,” Bush said.
Cheney’s longtime cardiologist, Jonathan Reiner, kicked off the service. Reiner said Cheney suffered a “relentless disease intent on killing him but he never looked over his shoulder, only ahead.”
Pete Williams shared several anecdotes from serving as Cheney’s press secretary when he was defense secretary under President George H.W. Bush, including Cheney’s response when Williams offered to resign in 1991 when he was about to be outed as gay by a magazine.
“He wouldn’t hear of it,” Williams said. “And for several days after that article appeared, he would call me on the direct line to my desk at the Pentagon to ask how I was doing and to tell me to get on with the job.”
According to the cathedral’s program, Cheney’s daughter, former congresswoman Liz Cheney, and his grandchildren will also give remarks.
Among the hundreds of mourners are President Joe Biden and Jill Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, former Vice President Mike Pence, former Vice President Al Gore and former Vice President Dan Quayle.
A White House official confirmed to ABC News that President Donald Trump was not invited to the funeral. Vice President JD Vance was also not invited, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
Also at the service are Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham and Mitch McConnell, Bill Kristol, Hugh Hewitt and former Trump national security adviser John Bolton.
Cheney died on Nov. 3 at the age of 84 due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.
“Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing,” the family said in a statement at the time. “We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”
A polarizing and powerful figure, Cheney worked for four decades in Washington. He served in Congress, as secretary of defense and then vice president under President George W. Bush.
He played a leading role in the response to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, including the war on terror and invasion of Iraq.
Bush, in a statement after Cheney’s death, called Cheney “a patriot who brought integrity, high intelligence, and seriousness of purpose to every position he held.”
Washington National Cathedral, situated just miles north of the White House, has been the site of several state funerals for former presidents, including Jimmy Carter, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush.
After news of Cheney’s death earlier this month, the White House lowered flags but made no major proclamation.
President Trump was silent on Cheney’s death. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Trump was “aware” of his passing.
Trump and Cheney have a history of tensions, as Cheney became a blunt critic of Trump following his push to deny the 2020 election results and the pro-Trump mob attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Cheney, a lifelong conservative voice, endorsed Harris, the Democratic nominee, over Trump in 2024. Explaining his decision, Cheney said “there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”
Trump responded at the time by calling Cheney an “irrelevant RINO” and “King of Endless, Nonsensical Wars, wasting Lives and Trillions of Dollars.”
Vice President Vance, asked about Cheney during a Breitbart news event on Thursday morning, expressed his condolences.
“Obviously, there are some political disagreements there, but he was a guy who served his country. We certainly wish his family all of the best in this moment of grieving,” Vance said.
ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report.
Former FBI Director James Comey talks backstage on June 19, 2018 in Berlin, Germany. Carsten Koall/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As the Justice Department’s criminal case against former FBI Director James Comey looks increasingly imperiled, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Lindsey Halligan and other DOJ officials are leveling unusual public attacks at the judge overseeing the case by mischaracterizing comments he made at a Wednesday hearing.
“Personal attacks — like Judge Nachmanoff referring to me as a ‘puppet’ — don’t change the facts or the law,” Halligan said in an statement exclusively to the New York Post.
“A federal judge should be neutral and impartial. Instead, this judge launched an outrageous and unprofessional personal attack yesterday in open court against US Attorney Lindsey Halligan. DOJ will continue to follow the facts and the law,” DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin said in a statement posted to ‘X’ Thursday.
The statements refer to an exchange between U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff and Comey’s attorney Michael Dreeben in which Nachmanoff questioned whether their position was that Halligan was serving as a “puppet” or a “stalking horse” for President Donald Trump in his orders for retribution against Comey.
But Nachmanoff never asserted directly that Halligan was a “puppet,” and didn’t dispute in court when DOJ attorney Tyler Lemons flatly rejected that characterization.
“So your view is that Ms. Halligan is a stalking horse or a puppet, for want of a better word, doing the president’s bidding?” Judge Nachmanoff asked Dreeben during the exchange.
“Well, I don’t want to use language about Ms. Halligan that suggests anything other than she did what she was told to do,” Dreeben replied. “The president of the United States has the authority to direct prosecutions. She worked in the White House. She was surely aware of the president’s directive.”
Comey was indicted in September on charges of lying to Congress after Trump forced out previous U.S. Attorney Erik Siebert and installed Halligan, a White House staffer with no prosecutorial experience, then called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to act “NOW!!!” to prosecute Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Rep. Adam Schiff. Comey has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
An attorney for Comey argued during Wednesday’s hearing that by replacing Siebert with his former staffer and lawyer, and publicly calling for his political foes to be charged, Trump was “manipulating the machinery of prosecution” and committing an “egregious violation of bedrock constitutional values.”
Halligan also testified that the grand jury that indicted Comey voted to indict him on two of the three counts submitted in the original indictment, but that the final revised indictment reflecting the two counts Comey was ultimately charged with was not reviewed by the full grand jury — only by the jury foreperson and one other grand juror.
The family of 18-year-old Anna Kepner, who was reported dead while aboard the Carnival Horizon cruise ship on Saturday, says they will remember her as a happy, bubbly, straight-A student with a bright future ahead. Kepner family
Kepner’s family asked mourners to wear colors, instead of black, to the celebration of life event “in honor of Anna’s bright and beautiful soul.” Instead of flowers at the service, the family said Kepner’s friends are encouraged to leave flowers on the teenager’s car.
The FBI is investigating Kepner’s Nov. 8 death on the Carnival Horizon. The Miami-Dade medical examiner has still not specified a cause or manner of death.
Kepner was found dead under a bed, wrapped in a blanket and covered by life vests, according to a security source briefed on the investigation.
Investigators are also looking at other possibilities, including a medical emergency or an overdose, the security source said.
A filing in an unrelated family court matter noted Kepner’s stepsibling could face charges. Kepner’s stepmother — who was also on the cruise, along with her children and Kepner’s father — requested a delay in her custody hearing, saying, “The Respondent has been advised through discussions with FBI investigators and her attorneys, that a criminal case may be initiated against one of the minor children.”
Kepner was set to graduate from high school in May and was interested in joining the military, her family said.
“She loved being around people. She had that type of energy that just drew you in with her smile and the way she carried herself,” her family said in a statement.
“She filled the world with laughter, love, and light that reached everyone around her,” her obituary said. “Anna was pure energy: bubbly, funny, outgoing, and completely herself.”
ABC News’ Josh Margolin, Aaron Katersky, Luke Barr and Alondra Valle contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Stocks rallied in early trading on Thursday, just hours after blockbuster earnings from chip giant Nvidia and a stronger-than-expected jobs report.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped nearly 600 points, or 1.2%, while the S&P 500 climbed 1.8%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq soared 2.5%.
Shares of Nvidia, the $4.7 trillion juggernaut behind many of the chips fueling artificial-intelligence products, surged more than 4%.
A stock market selloff over recent days underscored the uncertainty looming over the economy as some investors warned of an AI bubble. The earnings blowout from Nvidia late Wednesday appeared to rebuke such concerns, however, reviving enthusiasm for an AI trade that has propelled much of the market gains this year.
The S&P 500 has soared 15% in 2025, while the Dow has climbed 10%. The Nasdaq has increased 19% this year.
Investors also appeared to draw optimism from a jobs report on Thursday morning, which showed far more hiring than economists’ expected. The fresh data defied a hiring slowdown that took hold over the summer.
The U.S. added 119,000 jobs in September, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure marked an acceleration from the previous month, and it exceeded an average of nearly 100,000 jobs added per month over the first half of 2025.
The report included a downward revision for the month of August, however, slashing performance from 22,000 jobs gained that month to 4,000 jobs lost.
An earnings release from Walmart on Thursday morning also exceeded revenue expectations, offering some reassurance about the health of consumer spending.
Inflation has picked up in recent months while hiring has ratcheted down, posing a risk of an economic double-whammy known as “stagflation.”
Those economic conditions have put the Federal Reserve in a bind, since the central bank must balance a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment.
In recent months, concern has tilted toward strain in the labor market, prompting the central bank to reduce interest rates a quarter of a percentage point at each of its last two meetings.
On Thursday morning, markets appeared to digest the news as favorable toward a potential interest rate cut at the Fed’s meeting next month. The odds of a quarter-point rate cut ticked up from 33% on Wednesday afternoon to 43% on Thursday morning, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
: Former Vice President Dick Cheney speaks at the Sunshine Summit opening dinner at Disney’s Contemporary Resort on November 12, 2015 in Orlando, Florida. (Photo by Tom Benitez – Pool/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Dick Cheney’s funeral will be held in Washington on Thursday, with several high-profile political figures set to be at the service for the man considered one of the most influential vice presidents in U.S. history.
Former President Joe Biden plans to attend, a spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.
The funeral is being held at Washington National Cathedral and is set to start at 11 a.m. ET.
Seen arriving for the service were former Vice President Al Gore, Democratic Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Republican Rep. Lindsey Graham, Bill Kristol, former Trump national security adviser John Bolton.
A White House official confirmed to ABC News that President Donald Trump was not invited to the funeral. Vice President JD Vance was also not invited, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
Former President George W. Bush, who Cheney served for two terms, will offer a tribute at the service. According to the cathedral’s program, Cheney’s daughter, former congresswoman Liz Cheney, and his grandchildren will also give remarks.
Cheney died on Nov. 3 at the age of 84 due to complications of pneumonia and cardiac and vascular disease.
“Dick Cheney was a great and good man who taught his children and grandchildren to love our country, and to live lives of courage, honor, love, kindness, and fly fishing,” the family said in a statement at the time. “We are grateful beyond measure for all Dick Cheney did for our country. And we are blessed beyond measure to have loved and been loved by this noble giant of a man.”
A polarizing and powerful figure, Cheney worked for four decades in Washington. He served in Congress, was secretary of defense under President George H.W. Bush and then vice president under President George W. Bush.
He played a leading role in the response to the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, including the war on terror and invasion of Iraq.
Bush, in a statement after Cheney’s death, called Cheney “a patriot who brought integrity, high intelligence, and seriousness of purpose to every position he held.”
Washington National Cathedral, situated just miles north of the White House, has been the site of several state funerals for former presidents, including Jimmy Carter, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush.
After news of Cheney’s death earlier this month, the White House lowered flags but made no major proclamation.
President Trump was silent on Cheney’s death. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Trump was “aware” of his passing.
Trump and Cheney have a history of tensions, as Cheney became a blunt critic of Trump following his push to deny the 2020 election results and the pro-Trump mob attack on the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Cheney, a lifelong conservative voice, endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris over Trump in 2024. Explaining his decision, Cheney said “there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump.”
Trump responded at the time by calling Cheney an “irrelevant RINO” and “King of Endless, Nonsensical Wars, wasting Lives and Trillions of Dollars.”
ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd contributed to this report.
A sign is displayed outside of the Robert F. Kennedy U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) building on June, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Three Chinese nationals were charged with smuggling Nvidia and HP products to China, according to charges unsealed by the Justice Department on Thursday.
Starting in September of 2023, Hon Ning Ho, Brian Raymond, Cham Li and Jing Chen allegedly exported chips to China.
The Justice Department alleges that the three Chinese nationals and one American were involved in a scheme to ship these chips to third party countries — Thailand and Malaysia — that would then be shipped to China. The men allegedly set up a shell company to purchase these products.
The Commerce Department has banned China from acquiring these chips.
The Justice Department also alleges that the men discussed ways to “evade United States export laws and regulations.”
In exchange for these chips, the men received “kickbacks” for their alleged work.
In total, the men allegedly smuggled hundreds chips to China.
U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., speaks after being sworn in during a ceremony in the Broward County Commission chambers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Jan. 27, 2025. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) —Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, of Florida, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, which she is accused of laundering to support her 2021 congressional campaign.
The indictment was announced by the Justice Department on Wednesday.
The indictment alleges Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, 51, received a $5 million overpayment in FEMA funds directed to their family health care company in connection with a contract for COVID-19 vaccination staffing in 2021.
Afterward, Cherfilus-McCormick and other co-defendants allegedly conspired to use the overpaid funds to benefit her campaign by routing it through multiple accounts to disguise its source, according to the DOJ.
They further are alleged to have arranged a series of straw donors that included their friends and relatives to funnel the COVID-19 contract money in the form of donations to her campaign.
“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the indictment. “No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain. We will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice.”
If convicted, Cherfilus-McCormick faces a maximum sentence of up to 53 years in prison.
She did not immediately have an attorney listed representing her on her case docket as of Wednesday evening.
The federal investigation into Cherfilus-McCormick dates back to the Biden administration, multiple current and former administration officials told ABC News.
The House Ethics Committee said publicly in January 2025 that it was also investigating Cherfilus-McCormick after receiving a referral from Office of Congressional Ethics in September 2023.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday evening, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Cherfilus-Mccormick is “innocent until proven guilty,” when asked for his reaction to the indictment and said he had yet to speak with her but planned to do so.
Cherfilus-Mccormick will “take leave” from her position as ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa “while this matter is ongoing,” Jeffries’ spokesperson Christie Stephenson said in a statement.
House Republican Rep. Greg Steube of Florida said Wednesday he will file a resolution Thursday morning to censure his Democratic counterpart.
The resolution would also remove the congresswoman for all her committee assignments, including Foreign Affairs and Veterans Affairs committees.
“This is one of the most egregious abuses of public trust I have ever seen,” Steube said in a statement on X. “Stealing $5 million in taxpayer disaster funds from FEMA of all places is beyond indefensible. Millions of Floridians have relied on FEMA after devastating hurricanes, and that money was supposed to help real disaster victims.”
ABC News’ Lauren Peller and Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Employers hired far more workers than expected in September, defying a sharp slowdown over the summer that appeared to cool off the labor market.
The U.S. added 119,000 jobs in September, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure marked an acceleration from 22,000 jobs added in the previous month, and it exceeded an average of nearly 100,000 jobs added per month over the first half of 2025.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4%, but it remained at a historically low level.
A stock market selloff over recent days underscored the uncertainty looming over the economy as some investors warned of an AI bubble. Blockbuster earnings unveiled by chip giant Nvidia late Wednesday, however, appeared to defy such concerns.
Still, mass layoffs at corporate giants like Amazon, UPS and Verizon in recent weeks have drawn attention to a sluggish labor market — and stoked fears that job losses may spread.
It is likely too early to panic, however, some economists previously told ABC News. While the layoffs reflect a weakened labor market and AI adoption in some corners of the tech industry, they added, the prospect of wider job losses remains highly uncertain.
Inflation has picked up in recent months while hiring has slowed, posing a risk of an economic double-whammy known as “stagflation.”
Those economic conditions have put the Federal Reserve in a bind, since the central bank must balance a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment.
“We have the situation where the risks are to the upside for inflation and to the downside for employment. We have one tool,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last month. “You can’t address both of those at once.”
Still, Powell said, concern has tilted toward strain in the labor market, prompting the central bank to reduce interest rates a quarter of a percentage point at each of its last two meetings.
“A further reduction of the policy rate in December is not a foregone conclusion — in fact, far from it,” Powell told reporters.
Traders peg the chances interest rates will be left unchanged next month at about 66%, while the odds of a quarter-point rate cut stand at 33%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said it would not release a full jobs report for the month of October due to lost capacity during the shutdown. Rather, partial jobs data for October will be released as part of the November report, the BLS said.
(NEW YORK) — The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a final version of its report on pediatric gender-affirming care on Wednesday, claiming it found “medical dangers posed to children,” which is receiving pushback from medical groups.
The report alleged that gender-affirming care — including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender-affirming surgeries — caused significant, long-term damage.
It comes after HHS published in May an early version of what it referred to as a “comprehensive review” of transgender care for children and teens, in which it called for a broader use of psychotherapy for young people with gender dysphoria rather than gender-affirming medical interventions.
The HHS referred to the final version of the report as “peer-reviewed,” but some of those who reviewed the contents are researchers who have spoken against gender affirming care.
Some major medical groups have pushed back, stating that psychotherapy first is the standard approach in gender-affirming care and that additional care, such as hormonal therapies, only occurs after in-depth evaluations between patients and doctors.
The American Psychological Association (APA), which reviewed the report, argued it lacks transparency and that scientific research does not support the authors’ theories.
Experts in the gender-affirming care space questioned the validity of the findings, saying that studies have found that gender-affirming care is generally safe and that youth with gender dysphoria are typically evaluated, diagnosed and treated based on an individual assessment by qualified providers.
“This report does not add to the science. It adds to the noise around care for transgender young people, care that is provided by licensed clinicians according to a standard of care,” Kellan Baker, senior advisor for health policy at the Movement Advancement Project, an independent think tank that provides research, insight and analysis on LGBTQ+ issues, told ABC News.
“That standard of care is based on the same comparable quality of evidence as care across any other area of medicine,” Baker continued. “There is nothing new or unusual about care for transgender young people except for the extraordinary degree of political antagonism that is being focused on this very, very small group of young people.”
In a press release on Wednesday, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, called the report “a turning point for American medicine,” adding that “we are committed to ensuring that science, not ideology, guides America’s medical research.”
David Aizuss, MD, chair of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees and Susan J. Kressly, MD, FAAP, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, released a joint statement on Wednesday.
“We reject characterizations of our approach to gender-affirming care as negligent or ideologically driven, and take particular issue with the false assertion that our members have committed ‘malpractice’ or betrayed their oath in any way,” the statement read.
“These claims, rooted in politics and partisanship, misrepresent the consensus of medical science, undermine the professionalism of physicians, and risk harming vulnerable young people and their families,” Aizuss and Kressly added.
The final version of the HHS report listed nine authors, all of whom have expressed skeptical views of, or have opposed, pediatric gender-affirming care.
The initial May report did not list the names of its authors to “help maintain the integrity of this process.” Critics at the time pointed out that this prevented readers from gauging whether the names were credible or had any conflicts of interest.
The disclosures in the final report show that at least six of the nine authors have financial interests or have spoken out extensively opposing gender affirming care.
This includes authors who have been paid to offer expert testimony on legislative efforts to ban pediatric gender medicine and have published papers critical of pediatric gender medicine, including claims that such care does not improve depression or suicidality among trans youth.
The report included 10 reviewers, including individual physicians and medical groups, some of whom praised the report as “scientifically sound” and said the main findings and conclusions are “correct.”
Other reviewers were critical, including the APA, which accused the authors of the report of cherry-picking which studies it used in its findings and not justifying why other studies were excluded. Additionally, it says key findings in studies that were relied on were unexplained or absent.
“While the HHS Report purports to be a thorough, evidence-based assessment of gender-affirming care for transgender youth, its underlying methodology lacks sufficient transparency and clarity for its findings to be taken at face value,” the APA wrote in its review, found in the report’s supplement.
In conclusion, the group wrote, “the report’s claims fall short of the standard of methodological rigor that should be considered a prerequisite for policy guidance in clinical care.”
In a response to the report, the Endocrine Society said in a statement to ABC News that mental health care is already part of treating transgender and gender-diverse youth with health care protocols requiring initial mental health support and evaluations.
However, they add that access to medication such as hormone therapy can be used in conversations between patients, their families and their doctors. They add that such care is also relatively rare.
“The use of puberty-delaying medication or hormone therapy remains rare and reflects a cautious approach as recommended in our guideline,” the statement read. “Fewer than one in 1,000 U.S. adolescents with commercial insurance received either treatment during the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, according to a January 2025 study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. And our 2017 guidelines recommend against prescribing any medication for gender dysphoria before puberty starts.”
Gender-affirming care is supported by multiple major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) and the APA, and the Endocrine Society.
Studies have shown that many of the treatment options are generally safe and that care can have a positive impact on mental health, which psychotherapy alone cannot provide, experts said.
Some experts have questioned the significance of interventions on long-term mental health as well as the possibility of regret and point out potential risks to future fertility.
Additionally, systematic reviews from Sweden, Finland and the U.K. have resulted in the three countries restricting gender-affirming care. England’s National Health Service ended prescribing puberty blockers for minors experiencing gender dysphoria outside of clinical trials. Sweden and Finland have followed psychotherapy-first models.
