New Trump Order Restricts Gender-Affirming Care for Youth
As of January 28, federally-funded medical facilities that provide gender-affirming care to minors are at risk of losing their funding if they choose to continue doing so, thanks to a new executive order signed by Trump. If the order stays in place, it puts hospitals, clinics and medical schools that provide gender-affirming care to minors in a sticky situation; having to choose between staying open and cease the care, or losing their funding to stay open and continuing the care.
The order, brutally and idiotically titled “Protecting Children from Chemical and Surgical Mutilation”, also directs federal agencies to rescind protections for trans youth receiving gender-affirming care — this includes reviewing Medicaid benefits and Tricare insurance policies, as well as revoking puberty blockers and surgeries for trans minors who are under the Federal Health Employee Benefits Plan. The argument for restricting gender-affirming care under the age of eighteen, aside from the blatant transphobia present within the rhetoric, is that it prevents children who might ‘choose’ to be transgender on a whim from a lifetime of medical complications — the concept of people ‘choosing’ their gender and later regretting it being a massive talking point for the conservative community.
The new order also contains specific directions for the Department of Justice, as well as the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department of Justice is to look into healthcare for trans youth and encourage investigations into prescriptions and potential prosecutions against medical providers under the law prohibiting ‘female genital mutilation’ in the U.S. The Department of Health and Human Services is to review existing laws — such as Section 1157 in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), which prohibits medical discrimination — and see if they can be utilized to restrict access to gender-affirming care across the board, not just for minors.
The order does not go into effect immediately — like all executive orders, facilities are given thirty to sixty days to make the changes, which gives it ample time to be challenged in court. However, advocates are worried that any sort of federal statement or policy even being attempted will psych out other providers for potential future policies and lead to revoking of care regardless of if the order passes. This could lead to an effective ‘ban’ on gender-affirming youth care across the country.
LGBTQ+ advocates from all backgrounds are, naturally, in an uproar; members of queer-focused legal services, such as Jennifer Pizer of Lambda Legal, say that this order itself is in active violation of the aforementioned anti-discrimination clause of the ACA. Concerns over the future of gender-affirming care as a whole in the United States have been a concern for quite some time, especially since the beginning of the current Supreme Court term in October, specifically under the pending case U.S. v. Skrmetti, which is set to review the constitutionality of gender-affirming medical procedures for trans people under the age of eighteen.
