The Trump administration has proposed two federal regulations that would limit access to gender-affirming care for transgender minors across the country.
The proposed regulations, issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), would prohibit federal Medicaid funds from covering transition-related care for transgender youth under the age of 19 and threaten to strip federal funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming treatment to minors.
Ministry of Health officials revealed NBC News CMS will begin the federal rulemaking process with a 60-day public comment period, after which the rule could be finalized.
Like many anti-transgender policies, this restriction applies only to minors whose gender identity does not match the sex assigned at birth. Intersex children and children with hormonal and endocrine disorders whose gender identity matches their birth sex will continue to be allowed to receive the same treatments barred to transgender youth.
Separately, HHS announced that it is issuing warning letters to 12 chest binder manufacturers and retailers for illegally selling the products to minors with gender dysphoria.
HHS is also proposing to amend Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to specify that gender dysphoria is not a “disability,” a change that would eliminate existing requirements for employers receiving federal funding to accommodate individuals with this disability.
The two proposed rules, along with the Section 504 amendment and the crackdown on breast binders, are part of the Trump administration’s broader efforts to prevent transgender people, particularly minors, from transitioning or pursuing what HHS calls “gender refusal procedures.” This action is consistent with past executive orders that delegitimize gender identity and threaten to strip federal funding from agencies that provide gender-affirming care to persons under 19.
“True to form, the Trump administration is doubling down on its attacks on the health and well-being of transgender youth,” said Sasha Buchert, director of Lambda Legal’s Nonbinary and Transgender Rights Project. “In doing so, they are intentionally targeting affordable health care more broadly and holding hospitals and everyone who relies on Medicaid hostage.”
Butchart said the proposed rule has not yet taken effect and could change before it is finalized.
“We encourage everyone to use the comment portal provided to let HHS know how dangerous and cruel these proposed regulations are,” Butchert said.
The proposal comes amid recent congressional actions aimed at blocking access to gender-affirming care for minors.
One bill, sponsored by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), would penalize doctors, parents and others who help minors receive gender-affirming care. Another proposal, introduced by Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), would prohibit the use of Medicaid funds to cover transition-related treatment.
Already, 26 states have banned minors from accessing gender-affirming health care, and health care providers in many states face loss of their medical licenses. In six states, doctors and others who assist minors can be charged with a felony.
In July, the Trump administration launched an investigation into doctors and clinics that provide gender reassignment care to minors, charging them with “health care fraud” and threatening prosecution.
As a result, about two dozen hospitals and clinics across the country, including states without the ban, have canceled or ended gender-affirming care programs for minors and some youth, and some of those decisions are now facing legal challenges.
The American Civil Liberties Union denounced the proposed rules and threatened legal action if the administration moved to enforce them.
“The latest proposal would force doctors to choose between their ethical obligations to their patients and the threat of losing federal funding and uprooting families who have already fled state-level bans and losing access to care,” said Chase Strangio, co-director of the ACLU’s LGBTQ & HIV Rights Project.
“These rules are designed to completely cut off medically necessary care from children, regardless of where they live in this country,” said Kelly Robinson, director of the Human Rights Campaign. “The Trump administration will decide who gets their prescriptions filled and who cancels their next appointment altogether.”
Source: Metro Weekly – www.metroweekly.com
