BUENOS AIRES, Feb 6, 2025 (AFP) - Argentina said Wednesday it would ban gender transition procedures for minors, part of President Javier Milei's war on what he calls "woke ideology."

Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said the government would amend a 2012 law to "ban hormone treatment and body adaptation surgery for people aged under 18."

He argued that gender transition treatments posed a "serious risk" to the physical and mental health of minors.

"In many cases the effects of these treatments and surgeries are irreversible," he said, listing Finland, Sweden, Britain and the United States among countries that are restricting access to gender transitions for minors, including treatment such as puberty blockers.

Adorni added that prisoners would also be banned from requesting transfers "due to gender changes."

"This means that if a convict is in a men's prison, he will no longer (be allowed to) ask to be transferred to a women's section just because he perceives himself as such," he said, presenting it as an issue of prisoner safety.

The announcements, which come a week after US President Donald Trump restricted gender transition procedures for people younger than 19, caused outrage in Argentina's LGBTQ community.

"The president cannot modify a law by decree. And if he tries, we will challenge it, including at the Inter-American Court (of Human Rights) if necessary," the Argentine LGBT+ Federation wrote on X.

Under the current law, minors can access gender transition treatments as long as they have consent from their legal guardians or a judicial body.

Milei, a fervent admirer of Trump, used a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos last month to launch a broadside against what he called the "cancer" of "woke ideology."

He attacked "radical feminism," calling it a way of obtaining "privileges," as well as "gender ideology," a term used by social conservatives opposed to gender inclusivity.

His remarks triggered mass demonstrations in Buenos Aires and a dozen other Argentine cities over the weekend.

Milei has also followed Trump's lead on other policy issues.

On Wednesday, Argentina announced that it would follow the United States out of the World Health Organization, citing similar complaints to those voiced by Trump over the UN body's management of the Covid-19 pandemic.