Trump HHS moves to end care for trans youth

What happened

The Trump administration Thursday took several steps designed to end gender-affirming care for Americans under age 18. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, the head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, proposed pulling all federal funding from any hospital that provides puberty-blocking drugs, hormone therapies or surgeries to minors, and prohibiting Medicaid from paying for such treatments. The Food and Drug Administration also warned makers of breast binders, used by many transgender males to flatten their chests, about “illegally marketing” their products to minors with gender dysphoria.

Who said what

The “sweeping proposals” are the Trump administration’s “most significant moves” yet to quash treatments for transgender minors, The Associated Press said. But this is more than “just a regulatory shift,” The New York Times said. It reflects President Donald Trump’s “laserlike focus” on proving that his government “does not recognize even the existence” of transgender or nonbinary people.

Trump and his party are also “trying to flip the health care script” from “health care affordability” to “an issue that’s worked for them in the past” and “mostly unites Republicans,” Politico said. Most major medical groups oppose the changes, saying the rules “intrude on physician-patient relationships and jeopardize care for everyone,” said CNN. Kennedy and his deputies “frequently invoke parental rights when discussing childhood vaccines,” The Washington Post said, but “when it comes to transition care, Oz said the government needs to step in because parents have been ‘tricked’” into seeking medical or pharmaceutical intervention.

What next?

The public has 60 days to comment on the proposals. If enacted, they “would effectively shut down hospitals that failed to comply,” the Times said. The ACLU vowed to challenge the rules in court.

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