Trump administration proposals aim to ban transgender care for minors
Global News
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.
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.
The sweeping proposals — the most significant moves this administration has taken so far to restrict the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy and surgical interventions for transgender children — include cutting off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to children and prohibiting federal Medicaid dollars from being used to fund such procedures.
“This is not medicine, it is malpractice,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said of gender-affirming procedures on children in a news conference on Thursday. “Sex-rejecting procedures rob children of their futures.”
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.
The proposals run counter to the recommendations of most major U.S. medical organizations. And advocates for transgender children strongly refuted the administration’s claims about gender-affirming care and said Thursday’s moves would put lives at risk.
“The multitude of efforts we are seeing from federal legislators to strip transgender and nonbinary youth of the health care they need is deeply troubling,” said Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, of The Trevor Project, a nonprofit suicide prevention organization for LBGTQ+ youth, who called the changes a “one-size-fits-all mandate from the federal government” on a decision that should be between a doctor and patient.
Medicaid programs in slightly less than half of states currently cover gender-affirming care. At least 27 states have adopted laws restricting or banning the care. The Supreme Court’s recent decision upholding Tennessee’s ban means most other state laws are likely to remain in place.
The proposals announced by Kennedy and his deputies are not final or legally binding. The federal government must go through a lengthy rulemaking process, including periods of public comment and document rewrites, before the restrictions becoming permanent. They are also likely to face legal challenges.
Darlene Hensch, who once struggled with unexplained infertility, is now expecting quadruplets and preparing for a high-risk delivery and life-changing journey.
Negotiations that could have led to coverage for weight-loss drug Wegovy under Canadian public health plans are not moving forward.
They've been married for 55 years, but for most of that time, something has been missing from Janet and Robert Cockwill's life, until their grandson made a remarkable discovery.
NDP interim leader Don Davies said the government's response to a commissioned report on the program was 'shockingly dismissive,' and the health minister has not committed to act.
The Ford government is routinely making decisions before environmental consultations have concluded and under-resourcing public education about those consultations, the AG found.
From 2016 to 2024, the vacancy rate for health-related occupations nearly tripled, increasing from 2.1 per cent to 5.8 per cent, the report said.
The milestone deal with Ottawa signed earlier this week clears regulatory hurdles for a potential pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast.
Canadian veterinarians are sounding the alarm about their loss of access to about 40 per cent of medications they once were able to use and they are blaming Health Canada.