Department of Veterans Affairs leaders said Monday that they will phase out coverage of gender transition care for veterans, rescinding a 2018 policy to comply with an executive order President Donald Trump signed that said sex is not changeable.

Trans veterans who already receive hormone therapy through VA will continue to have it covered, as will new veterans who received that care while in the military, but other veterans can no longer initiate care for gender dysphoria, according to the new policy. The department has never covered gender transition surgeries. VA Secretary Douglas A. Collins said in a statement that the department “should not be focused on helping Veterans attempt to change their sex.”

“All eligible Veterans — including trans-identified Veterans — will always be welcome at VA and will always receive the benefits and services they’ve earned under the law,” Collins said. “But if Veterans want to attempt to change their sex, they can do so on their own dime.”

VA has covered hormone and voice therapies for transgender veterans for more than a decade, but a department news release said it has not kept “consistent and reliable records” tracking how much the benefit costs, nor how many veterans have accessed it. Department estimates indicate that fewer than one-tenth of 1 percent of the 9.1 million veterans enrolled in VA health care identify as trans.

Collins said VA will redirect any savings toward paralyzed veterans and amputees. A spokesman for the department declined to respond to questions from The Washington Post about how they would calculate those savings.

Rep. Mark Takano (D-California), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus and the top Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, said the new policy “isn’t cost-cutting” but “cruelty.” VA should not ignore the clinical judgment of VA providers prescribing such care for their patients, he said.

“Veterans deserve access to the medical care their providers deem appropriate — without Secretary Collins’s interference,” Takano said.

The new policy rescinds one the department adopted during Trump’s first administration. That policy had guaranteed trans veterans access to hormonal therapy, mental health care, preoperative evaluations and postoperative care following gender transition surgeries. It also granted trans veterans the right to use bathrooms and other facilities that match their gender.

Officials said trans veterans will continue to receive other VA health care, which includes preventive and mental health care.

Monday’s announcement follows a memo the Pentagon released last month that said any troops who have gender dysphoria or a history of it would be separated from the military, marking a reversal of previous Defense Department policy that prohibited discrimination based on gender identity. Nearly two dozen troops and people hoping to enlist have challenged that memo in court. A judge is expected to rule this week.

That directive followed an order from Trump that referred to being transgender as a “falsehood” inconsistent with the “humility and selflessness required of a service member.” It was one of several actions Trump has taken since returning to office in January that have attempted to roll back transgender people’s rights.

Leaders at advocacy organizations that support LGBTQ+ troops and veterans condemned VA’s announcement and said it will have “catastrophic mental and physical health consequences.”

“The foundation of military service is trust, trust in leadership, in our fellow service members, and in the promise that if we give our all, we will be taken care of,” said Emily Shilling, president of SPARTA Pride. “Yet today, transgender service members are being forced out, denied basic dignity at the VA, and are now being stripped of the healthcare promised to every veteran who served honorably. This is a betrayal of that sacred trust, one that weakens our force, our veterans, and the nation we swore to defend.”