Washington: President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Tuesday directing the cessation of all federal funding and support for healthcare services related to the transition of transgender minors. This move marks the latest in a series of actions aimed at restricting transgender rights during his first week in office.
The executive order, which is expected to face legal challenges, follows a previous order barring transgender individuals from serving in the military, alongside other measures that resonate with his conservative base, such as limiting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
This latest executive order aligns with Trump’s campaign promise to end “child sexual mutilation,” a term believed to refer to transgender-related medical treatments, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, designed to aid in gender transition.
In the executive order, Trump stated, “It is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
The order received praise from Trump’s supporters, including the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian law firm, which hailed it as “a refreshing return to sanity.” However, opponents like Marci Bowers, a gynecologist and surgeon who provides transgender care, warned that Trump “will have blood on his hands” due to the harmful impacts of the policy.
Despite criticism from conservative factions, major medical associations have endorsed gender-affirming care for minors, citing its potential to save lives and alleviate distress in transgender youth who may be at higher risk for suicide.
More than half of U.S. states have passed or are considering laws that restrict gender-affirming care for minors, with some of these laws facing legal battles. The U.S. Supreme Court recently heard a challenge to Tennessee’s law, though it has not yet issued a ruling that could establish the legal framework for such bans nationwide.
Chase Strangio, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who represented plaintiffs challenging the Tennessee law, affirmed that the executive order would face legal opposition. “We will not allow this dangerous, sweeping, and unconstitutional order to stand,” Strangio stated.
Lambda Legal, a prominent LGBTQ civil rights organization, also vowed to challenge the order, asserting that it would cause “unnecessary pain and suffering” for transgender youth and their families.
The executive order aims to prevent Medicare from covering gender-affirming healthcare and seeks to undermine Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, which prohibits insurance companies from denying coverage to transgender individuals. Trump further instructed the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to produce a report within 90 days reviewing existing literature on best practices for transgender healthcare for minors and to improve the data quality for such care.
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Dr. Marci Bowers, former president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH), defended the existing standards for transgender healthcare, asserting that peer-reviewed data supports the provision of transition services for minors who demonstrate “insistent, consistent, and persistent” gender identity. “They’re trying to make gender binary, and that’s simply not how gender is,” Bowers argued. “That’s not biology. Biology has diversity. Genitals have diversity. They just refuse to accept what biology actually teaches us.”
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Critics of the current medical standards believe that history will ultimately reveal the error of present-day approaches to transgender healthcare. “Gender ideology has worked its way into our culture and our schools, but its worst manifestation has been in pediatric medicine,” said Jay Richards, senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation.
