By Hannah Saunders

Medicaid and Medicare funding for hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to Transgender and Nonbinary youth will be stripped through newly proposed rules, according to a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services update on December 18. Trans and Nonbinary people have been facing increasingly targeted attacks by the Trump regime, which is working to erase these communities, and chest binder access for youth is also at risk. But Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said these proposed rules are not the law. 

“The proposed rule targeting healthcare for transgender and gender diverse people is cruel, and unnecessary. Under the law in Washington, necessary healthcare for transgender people is lawful and legally protected,” Brown said. 

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. signed a declaration that claims gender-affirming care does not meet health standards, although numerous experts have refuted his lies. He said he’s following Trump’s orders to prevent Trans and Nonbinary youth from receiving lifesaving healthcare. 

“This Administration will protect America’s most vulnerable. Our children deserve better— and we are delivering on that promise,” Kennedy Jr. said. 

The department claims that gender-affirming care for minors “exposes them to irreversible damage, including infertility, impaired sexual function, diminished bone density, altered brain development, and other irreversible psychological effects.”  The Food and Drug Administration is also in the process of delivering warning letters to 12 manufacturers and retailers for the “illegal marketing of breast binders to children for the purpose of treating gender dysphoria.” HHS is also working to undo the Biden administration’s inclusion of gender dysphoria under disabilities. 

“The Biden administration abused a law that was never intended to require health care providers or health programs to support transgender surgeries for minors,” Jim O’Neil, HHS Deputy Secretary said. “Our rule would restore regulatory clarity and ensure that organizations receiving federal funds can set evidence-based policies without fear of violating federal civil rights requirements.” 

But Susan J. Kressly, MD, FAAP, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), highlighted how these proposed rules are not based on scientific evidence, the needs of children and their families, and clinical expertise. 

“Allowing the government to determine which patient groups deserve care sets a dangerous precedent and children and families will bear the consequences,” she said.

Furthermore, gender-affirming care is associated with lower rates of depression and risks of suicide, which is backed up by numerous studies conducted by the Trevor Project, a suicide prevention nonprofit for Queer youth. The Trevor Project’s Senior Vice President of Public Engagement Campaigns, Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, said all people should have access to health care they need, and that restricting care puts the lives of Trans and Nonbinary youth at risk. 

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