Trump administration, Congress move to cut off transgender care for children

The Trump administration and House Republicans advanced measures this week to end gender-affirming care for transgender children and some young adults; This has sparked outrage and resistance from LGBTQ+ advocacy organizations, families with transgender children, health care providers, and some California liberal leaders.

The latest efforts to ban such care nationwide, defund hospitals that provide it, and punish doctors and parents who perform or support it follow earlier executive orders from President Trump and work by the Department of Justice to rein in such care.

Many hospitals, including California, have already restricted such care or closed gender-affirming care programs as a result.

Abigail Jones, a 17-year-old transgender activist from Riverside, called the moves “ridiculous” and dangerous, noting that this type of care “save lives.”

He also called these a purely political action by Republicans intent on turning transgender people into “monsters” that their base can afford, and that this action “will backfire on them because they’re not focused on what people want,” such as affordability and lower health care costs.

On Wednesday, the House passed a sweeping ban on gender-focused care for teens, pushed largely along party lines by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.).

The bill, which faces a tougher push in the U.S. Senate, already bans rare gender-affirming surgeries but also bans more common treatments like hormone treatments and puberty blockers for anyone under 18. It also calls for criminal prosecution of doctors and other healthcare professionals who provide such care and penalties for parents who facilitate or allow it to be administered to their children.

“Children are not old enough to vote, drive a car, or get a tattoo, and they are certainly not old enough to be chemically castrated or permanently disabled!!!” Greene shared a post on X.

“The tide is turning and I’m so grateful that Congress is taking measurable steps to end this practice that ruined my childhood,” said Chloe Cole, a prominent “detransition advocate” who has campaigned against gender-affirming care for children, which she received and now regrets.

Gay rights groups condemned the measure as a dangerous threat to medical providers and parents and as mischaracterizing legitimate care, which is supported by leading U.S. medical associations. They also described it as a threat to LGBTQ+ rights more broadly.

“If this bill becomes law, doctors could face imprisonment for simply doing their job and providing the care they have been trained to do. Parents could be charged and even imprisoned for supporting their children and ensuring they receive prescription medications,” said Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, one of the nation’s leading LGBTQ+ rights groups.

On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is proposing new rules that would ban such care from medical providers participating in its programs, which include nearly all U.S. hospitals. The health department said the move was “designed to ensure that the U.S. government does not do business with organizations that intentionally or unintentionally cause lasting harm to children.”

The department said officials will propose additional rules to prohibit the use of Medicaid or federal Children’s Health Insurance Program funding for gender-affirming care for children or young adults under 19, and the Office of Civil Rights will propose a rule that would exclude gender dysphoria from a covered disability.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued letters warning manufacturers of certain medical devices, including chest binders, that it is illegal to market their products to transgender youth.

Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. “Under my leadership and in response to President Trump’s call to action, the federal government will do everything in our power to stop unsafe, irreversible practices that put our children at risk,” he said in a statement. “Our children deserve better, and we are keeping that promise.”

The proposed rule changes are subject to public comment, and the Human Rights Campaign and other LGBTQ+ organizations, including the Los Angeles LGBT Center, have called on their supporters to voice their opposition.

Joe Hollendoner, the center’s executive director, said the proposed changes “ruthlessly target transgender youth” and would “destabilize safety net hospitals and other critical care providers.”

“Hospitals should never be forced to choose between providing life-saving care to transgender youth and providing critical services like cancer treatment to other patients,” Hollendoner said. “But this is exactly the division and harm these rules are intended to create.”

Hollendoner noted that California hospitals such as Children’s Hospital Los Angeles have already restricted gender affirmation services in the face of earlier threats from the Trump administration, leaving thousands of transgender youth losing access to care.

Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a statement comparing the Trump administration’s new partnership with California’s The Trevor Project to the state’s moves to improve 988 crisis training and suicide hotlines for vulnerable youth, including LGBTQ+ children, who are at disproportionately high risk of suicide and mental health issues.

“As the Trump administration abandons the well-being of LGBTQ youth, California is devoting more resources to providing vulnerable children with the mental health support they deserve,” Newsom said.

California Adv. Gen. Rob Bonta’s office is currently suing the Trump administration over its efforts to curtail gender-affirming care and target providers who provide such care in California, which is protected and supported by state law. His office has also resisted the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back other transgender rights, including youth sports.

On Thursday, Bonta said the proposed rules were “the Trump Administration’s latest attempt to deprive Americans of the care they need to live as their true selves.” He also said they were “illegal” and his office would fight them.

“If the Trump Administration issues final rules similar to these proposals, we stand ready to use every tool in our toolbox to prevent them from going into effect,” Bonta said, adding that “medically necessary gender-affirming care remains protected by California law.”

Arne Johnson, the father of a transgender child in the Bay Area who helps lead a group of similar families called the Rainbow Families Movement, said there has been “a lot of hate spread” against them in recent days but they are focused on fighting back and asking hospital networks to “not panic and stop care” based on proposed rules that have not yet been finalized.

Johnson said Republicans and Trump administration officials are “weirdly obsessed” with transgender children’s bodies, “undermining the trust we have with our doctors” and inserting politics between families and health care providers in dangerous ways.

He said parents of transgender children “are used to being hurt, upset, upset and worried about their children, and at the same time doing everything they can to make sure nothing bad happens to them” and are no longer willing to stop fighting.

But resisting such medical interventions isn’t just about gender-affirming care. He said blocking vaccines for children could be on the agenda next, which should upset and raise the voice of all parents.

“If our kids don’t care, the next step is they’re going to come for your kids,” Johnson said. “Soon, we will all be walking into hospital rooms wondering whether the other doctor can be trusted to give our child the best care, or whether their hands will be tied.”