#gender-affirming-care

#gender-affirming-care

Health and Human Services (HHS) General Counsel Mike Stuart has referred three children's hospitals to the agency's inspector general's office: Seattle Children's Hospital, Children's Hospital Colorado, and Children's Minnesota. Gender-affirming care for trans youth is legal in all three states. But HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last month announced that medical practitioners who provide gender-affirming care to minors are out of compliance with federal health care standards. Now, the agency is enforcing that declaration.

Related: Federal HR office sets deadline for government-wide purge of transgender and nonbinary inclusion OPM sent a letter to insurance carriers last year saying that as of 2026, "chemical and surgical modification of an individual's sex traits through medical interventions (to include 'gender transition"' services) will no longer be covered under the FEHB or PSHB Programs. There is a narrow exception for people who are mid-treatment.

Last August, the administration notified the insurance companies covering federal workers and their families that as of Jan. 1, 2026 it would no longer cover "chemical and surgical modification of an individual's sex traits through medical interventions." However, the administration did say it would pay for counseling, include by "those who provide faith-based counseling."

➡️ NYC Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani isn't letting Elon Musk slander his nominee for commissioner of the Fire Department of New York as she makes history as the first gay person chosen for the role. Meanwhile, gay MAGA Republican Richard Grenell is throwing a fit over a musician cancelling his Christmas Eve performance after Trump renamed the Kennedy Center after himself, and a hospital in Seattle is RFK Jr's latest target over gender-affirming care.

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has identified his first target following his declaration earlier this month to cut off Medicaid and Medicare funding to any hospital that provides health care to trans youth. Last Friday in a social media post, HHS announced that it was referring Seattle Children's Hospital for investigation for providing gender-affirming care to trans youth. Of course, Kennedy's declaration was simply that-a declaration with no basis in science.

The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Oregon, claims that HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. exceeded his authority with the Dec. 18 declaration, which would "effectively ban, by fiat, an entire caregory of healthcare." It also failed to follow proper procedures for promulgating new rules, would interfere with states' rights to run their Medicaid programs and regulate health care and deny care to youth that need it.

“taxpayer funding of sex rejecting procedures for children in Medicaid and CHIP [children's health insurance program], full stop”

Politics Thursday's announcements would imperil access in nearly two dozen states where drug treatments and surgical procedures remain legal and funded by Medicaid, which includes federal and state dollars. WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday unveiled a series of regulatory actions designed to effectively ban gender-affirming care for minors, building on broader Trump administration restrictions on transgender Americans.

would make it a Class C federal felony for doctors to follow the standards of care for gender dysphoria in trans youth, including prescribing any puberty blockers or hormones. It would also ban federal funds - including Medicaid funds - from being used for gender-affirming care for trans people, ban medical schools from teaching about such care, stop health care plans under the Affordable Care Act from funding the care,

"The state is responsible for the well being of any person it holds in its custody, regardless of whether that person has gender dysphoria or another diagnosis," Emily Early, an attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights who represented the plaintiffs, tells The Advocate. "Gender dysphoria is a medical condition that is just like any other condition of diabetes or cancer that the state must provide minimally adequate treatment for that meets constitutional standards."

'There were summers that I would wear two shirts just to feel comfortable enough to go outside, even if it was 100 degrees,' one man said, adding, 'When you have this condition, you're willing to go through anything and everything to overcome it.'

US health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, , who once likened gender-affirming care to 'mutilation,' is currently undergoing... gender-affirming care. The 71-year-old Republican is reportedly taking hormone replacement therapy medication despite his repeated criticism of the medical treatment, which is an often life-saving way to affirm trans people's gender identity. Since becoming US health secretary in February, Kennedy has falsely framed gender-affirming care as a form of "chemical and surgical mutilation" while enacting policies pressuring major healthcare providers to cease trans healthcare services.

On Friday, federal district Judge Mark A. Kearney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania issued an order quashing DOJ subpoena demands for names, dates of birth, Social Security numbers, home addresses, and clinical notes covering minors treated since January 2020. The court found the government "lacks statutory authority for a rambling exploration of the Hospital's files to learn the names and medical treatment of children."

The country's largest nonprofit health care provider will no longer offer gender-affirming care after Catholic bishops voted to ban the life-saving treatment in all church facilities. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops overwhelmingly approved the rule on Wednesday, which affects everything from hormone therapy and gender-affirming surgeries to talk therapy and other mental health services for all ages. While facilities run by the Catholic Church typically have not offered the care, the vote makes denial the official policy.