Health officials in the Biden administration urged an international transgender health nonprofit to omit the age limit in its guidelines for transgender surgical procedures for adolescents – and succeeded – according to recently unsealed court documents.

The documents, first reported on by The New York Times, revealed that staff for Rachel Levine, assistant secretary for the Department of Health and Human Services, pushed the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) to drop the age minimum requirement altogether to avoid seeing conservative lawmakers work to put such age restrictions into law.

The 2021 draft guidelines suggested 17 for genital surgeries or hysterectomies, 16 for breast augmentation or facial surgeries, 15 for mastectomies and 14 for hormonal treatments. However, the finalized WPATH 2022 guidelines did not include any age limit, the Times reported.

After publication, the White House told Fox: “The Administration does not support surgery for minors.”

BIDEN SLAMMED ON SOCIAL MEDIA AFTER ANNOUNCING TRANSGENDER DAY OF VISIBILITY ON EASTER SUNDAY

Excerpts of emails within WPATH’s advisory group were included in legal filings for a federal lawsuit challenging Alabama’s ban on transgender surgeries for minors, as released by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama. The lawsuit was filed by the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of five transgender children and their families, the Times reported.

One email from a member of the WPATH guideline development group described a conversation with Sarah Boateng, then-Levine’s chief of staff. According to the email, Boateng was confident that specifying ages under 18 could lead to “devastating legislation for trans care.” 

“She wonders if the specific ages can be taken out,” the excerpt read.

TRANSGENDER ATHLETE COMPLAINS ABOUT LACK OF SPORTSMANSHIP FROM FELLOW RUNNERS AFTER WINNING GIRLS STATE TITLE

Transgender treatments for minors have become a major culture war in the U.S. (ALLISON DINNER/AFP via Getty Images)

Levine “was very concerned that having ages (mainly for surgery) will affect access to care for trans youth and maybe adults, too,” another email read. 

“Apparently the situation in the U.S.A. is terrible and she and the Biden administration worried that having ages in the document will make matters worse. She asked us to remove them.”

James Cantor, a psychologist and critic of adolescent transgender procedures, filed the excerpts from the emails as evidence in support of Alabama’s federal lawsuit, the Times reported. No emails from Levine’s office specifically were released.

These emails, part of his report, suggest that WPATH made decisions influenced by politics rather than science in developing its transgender guidelines.

The Times reported that the plaintiffs in the case are attempting to prevent Cantor from testifying. 

WOMEN UNDER BIDEN ADMINISTRATION’S TITLE IX CHANGES FACE THE ‘EVISCERATION OF LEGAL WOMANHOOD,’ EXPERTS SAY

Protesters of Kentucky Senate Bill SB150, known as the Transgender Health Bill, cheer on speakers during a rally on the lawn of the Kentucky Capitol in Frankfort, Kentucky, on March 29, 2023. (AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley)

Transgender procedures and treatments for children have become a hot button issue in the country’s culture war. More than a dozen states in the U.S. have enacted bans on surgical procedures and hormonal prescriptions for transgender youth. 

Idaho, North Dakota, Florida, Oklahoma and Alabama have passed laws making it a felony to perform sex changes on children. Several blue states, meanwhile, have enacted “sanctuary state” laws in recent years shielding medical providers from facing penalties for conducting transgender procedures on adolescents. 

A missing North Carolina girl’s mother is now a suspect in her November 2022 disappearance, police said Tuesday. 

Madalina Cojocari, 11 at the time, was last seen getting off a school bus at 4:59 p.m. on Nov. 21, 2022. 

“(Madalina’s) mother, Diana Cojocari, is considered a suspect in her disappearance,” Cornelius Police said in a statement on Facebook. “We want to #FindMadalina. This has been our priority since we learned she was missing.”

Cojocari pleaded guilty in May to a criminal charge of failing to report a missing child. She did not tell law enforcement Madalina was missing until Dec. 15, 2022 and admitted to police she had not seen her daughter since Nov. 23, 2022. 

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER MADALINA COJOCARI’S MOM’S GUILTY PLEA?

Law enforcement has not released details about why they believe Cojocari is now a suspect, but no arrests have been made nor charges filed.

Lawyer Timothy Cannady, who is not involved in the case, speculated in an interview with WCNC Charlotte about potential new developments that led police to officially name Cojocari a suspect. 

MISSING FOR ONE YEAR: ‘NOT GOING TO STOP UNTIL WE FIND HER’

“There’s probably some level of new evidence that they’ve got,” Cannady said. That new evidence could be “something that points to not just her failure to report her daughter missing but that she actually played an active role in her daughter going missing.”

“If they’re (Cojacari’s parents) charged with, say, murder, or some kind of homicide offense or some kind of kidnapping offense, they could be essentially tried twice or charged for the different things,” he told the local news outlet. 

In December, authorities arrested and charged the 11-year-old’s parents, Diana Cojocari and Christopher Palmiter, with failure to report a missing child to law enforcement after Madalina’s disappearance from her hometown in Cornelius, North Carolina, just north of Charlotte, around Nov. 23, 2022. (Mecklenburg County Detention Center)

Cojocari and her husband, Christopher Palmiter, who is Madalina’s stepfather, did not report Madalina missing to police until Dec. 15, 2022, weeks after she was last seen. 

They even admitted to police the last time they saw Madalina was at home the evening of Nov. 23, 2022.

MISSING NORTH CAROLINA GIRL’S MOTHER WANTED TO SMUGGLE 11-YEAR-OLD FROM HOME: WARRANT

Leads have taken authorities from the Charlotte area to the mountains of western North Carolina, but there have been no signs of the missing girl for nearly two years.

Now, Cornelius police are looking in their own backyard at the woman who was supposed to care for her daughter. 

WATCH: INTERVIEW WITH CORNELIUS POLICE CHIEF

Police urged the public to continue to share Madalina’s picture on social media and call in tips to detectives at 704-892-7773.

Fox News Digital’s Audrey Conklin contributed to this report. 

ATLANTA — In a presidential election rematch where every vote may count, the campaigns of President Biden and former President Trump are reaching out to key constituencies in an attempt to gain an advantage in what may end up being a photo finish.

Aiming to court the small but potentially crucial sliver of moderate Republicans who are disgruntled with Trump as their party’s standard-bearer, Biden’s campaign on the eve of the first presidential debate unveiled an endorsement from former GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois.

The former military pilot and Iraq War veteran who transformed into a major Republican Trump critic after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters aiming to upend congressional certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory on Wednesday charged that the former president is “a direct threat to every fundamental American value” in a video announcing his endorsement.

Hours later, standing in the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta, Kinzinger said that “if you’d have told me three years ago that ‘You’re going to be endorsing a Democrat for president in three years,’ I probably wouldn’t have believed you.”

FIRST ON FOX: BIDEN CAMPAIGN TARGETS TRUMP OVER ‘NEGLECT OF DUTY’ ON EVE OF FIRST DEBATE

“But I got to tell you, the stakes of this moment are way too high,” Kinzinger added.

Another vocal GOP Trump critic, former Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan, joined Kinzinger at the news conference, along with former U.S. Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn, who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and Georgia Senate Democrat Leader Gloria Butler.

“Going against the grain as a Republican and supporting Democrat Joe Biden for president is not easy, but I’m not looking at this election through the lens of being a Republican,” Duncan explained. “I’m looking through the lens of being an American. An American that cares more about the future of my country than the [morally] bankrupt nominee of my party.”

Kinzinger’s endorsement and the news conference came on the same day that the Biden campaign launched a new ad in the key battleground states that targets Trump over his actions during the attack three and a half years ago on the U.S. Capitol.

The spot, shared first with Fox News on Wednesday, features Genesee County, Michigan, Sheriff Chris Swanson discussing how he watched in horror as Trump supporters stormed the Capitol and attacked Capitol police officers.

“As a sheriff, it’s awful to watch police officers getting attacked. That’s not supporting this badge and this uniform. I have no desire to work with somebody who divides. That’s not what America is,” Swanson emphasized.

WHICH DONALD TRUMP WILL SHOW UP THURSDAY AT THE FIRST PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE?

The ad, the endorsements and the news conference were all part of the Biden campaign’s push to hammer the presumptive GOP presidential nominee over what they call “Donald Trump’s attack on American democracy.”

Biden has long made what he charges is Trump’s threats to democracy a key focus of his presidency, and he has hammered home the point as he runs for a second term in the White House. It is very likely Biden will spotlight the issue in Thursday’s first presidential debate between the two major party standard-bearers.

It’s a pitch that may help the Biden campaign persuade some of the Republicans who supported former ambassador and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley in the GOP presidential primaries to consider voting for a Democrat this autumn.

Former Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois speaks with Fox News after headlining a Biden campaign news conference at the Georgia State Capitol in Atlanta on Wednesday. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)

“There is still a group of Republicans that are kind of very uneasy going with Donald Trump. They feel like… it’s unthinkable to vote for a Democrat. So, they’re trying to sit here and figure it out,” Kinzinger said. “This is an important time for Republicans to come forward and say it’s OK. You don’t have to give up your Republican stripes to vote for a Democrat. All you’re standing for is democracy.”

Asked by Fox News if the Biden campaign’s efforts to attract Republicans are adequate, Kinzinger said, “I think the campaign has certainly made it very clear, particularly in the last few months, that they want to win those Haley voters, those swing Republican voters.”

TOP TRUMP BLACK SURROGATES MAKE THE CASE FOR THE FORMER PRESIDENT

Kinzinger becomes the highest-profile former GOP elected official to formally back Biden, whose campaign earlier in the month named Kinzinger’s former chief of staff, Austin Weatherford, to serve as its national Republican outreach director.

The Trump campaign took aim at Kinzinger, who was one of only two Republicans who served on the Democrat-dominated House committee that investigated the attack on the Capitol.

Trump campaign spokesperson Steven Cheung took to social media, asking, “Who’s Adam Kinzinger? Isn’t he the crybaby?”

Republican Reps. Wesley Hunt of Texas, left, and Byron Donalds of Florida, third from left, and former HUD Secretary Dr. Ben Carson, second from right, attend a Trump campaign Black business roundtable discussion in Atlanta on Wednesday. (Fox News/Matthew Reidy)

While the Biden campaign was holding their news conference at the Georgia State House, Trump’s campaign was making a pitch for Black voters at an event just a couple miles away.

The Trump campaign organized what it called a Black American Business Leaders Barbershop Roundtable discussion in midtown Atlanta.

Leading the discussion were two of Trump’s most prominent Black allies and surrogates: GOP Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida and Wesley Hunt of Texas, and Dr. Ben Carson, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate who later served as Housing and Urban Development secretary in the Trump administration.

Both Carson and Donalds are widely considered to be on the larger list of potential Trump running mates.

Republican Reps. Byron Donalds of Florida, left, and Wesley Hunt of Texas headline a Black voter outreach event titled “Congress, Cognac, and Cigars” in Philadelphia on June 4. (Fox News/Paul Steinhauser)

Later on Wednesday, 24 hours ahead of the first presidential debate that is being held in Atlanta, Hunt and Donalds were set to hold their second edition of “Congress, Cognac, and Cigars,” a GOP outreach effort for Black male voters that they’re holding in some of the key swing states.

Polling this year indicates that while Biden retains a very large margin of support among Black voters, Trump has made gains with the key electorate that for generations has been a major part of the Democratic Party base.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.