The Justice Department on Wednesday endorsed legislation that would dramatically expand the window for filing lawsuits related to transgender procedures performed on minors, marking the Trump administration‘s most aggressive step yet to curb what it calls the “chemical and surgical mutilation” of children.

In a legislative proposal transmitted to Congress this week, the DOJ said it supports the Victims of Chemical or Surgical Mutilation Act, or VCSMA. The act would ban medical professionals from performing gender-transition procedures on children and create a private right of action for victims who later decide to “detransition,” a term commonly used to describe the process by which people who went through medical efforts to transition genders decide to live as their biological sex after finding that they endured permanent physical harm.

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The legislation, introduced by Rep. Bob Onder (R-MO) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), includes a provision that allows affected individuals to bring lawsuits up to 25 years after their 18th birthday, or four years after incurring detransition-related medical costs, whichever comes later.

Attorney General Pam Bondi hailed the legislation as a vital tool for holding practitioners accountable.

“The Department of Justice has heard from far too many families who have been devastated by mutilative medical procedures that fly in the face of basic biology,” Bondi said. “While we continue our ongoing legal battle to protect children, we appreciate our colleagues in Congress who are working diligently alongside us to end these abusive procedures once and for all.”

The issue of statutes of limitations has emerged as a key legal hurdle for individuals seeking to sue over gender transition procedures performed on them in their adolescence. The department has more recently made efforts to subpoena records from hospitals, including the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, amid a growing number of patients who undergo irreversible transgender medical procedures, in some cases under rushed timetables, and later report life-altering complications.

In North Carolina, lawmakers recently passed a bill that extends the malpractice claim window in such cases from four to 10 years following discovery of the harm, giving hope to plaintiffs such as 26-year-old Prisha Mosley, who by the age of 18 was approved for a double mastectomy that harmed her ability to nurse her child. Her case could soon become the first of its kind to reach a civil jury trial.

Through its support of the VCSMA, the DOJ cited Executive Order 14187, signed by President Donald Trump earlier this year, which directs federal agencies to pursue policy reforms aimed at curbing medical interventions on minors with gender dysphoria.

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Legal experts who previously spoke to the Washington Examiner said it was imperative for patients who allege they were harmed by their transgender procedures to have an extensive window to bring medical malpractice or fraud actions. In numerous cases, patients said they endured years of physical alterations to treat their gender dysphoria before realizing such procedures caused permanent and lasting harm.

“Until we can extend that statute of limitations for everybody, nothing is going to happen,” Martha Shoultz, an attorney and the head of the advocacy group Transition Justice, told the Washington Examiner last month. “Most of these kids will be stuck with no remedy.”