Trump signs executive order to defund youth gender-affirming care
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Transgender rights supporters take part in a rally outside of the U.S. Supreme Court as the high court hears arguments in a case on transgender health rights on Dec. 4 in Washington, D.C. Photo: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
President Trump issued an executive order on Tuesday attempting to ban federal funding or support for youth gender-affirming care.
The big picture: The policy is the administration's latest in a series of attacks against transgender people in the U.S.
- The latest executive order applies to people under 19, categorizing 18-year-olds with children.
What's next: Trump directed the Department of Health and Human Service to publish a review of existing literature on best practices for promoting the health of children with gender dysphoria within 90 days.
- The department was also directed to regulate programs like Medicare or Medicaid, the Affordable Care Act, essential health benefit requirements and federally funded manuals of diseases and disorders.
- The head of each executive department or agency that provides research or education grants was ordered to take steps to ensure that institutions receiving funding end gender-affirming care.
- The order also calls for removing federal funding from medical schools and hospitals that research gender-affirming care.
Catch up quick: On Inauguration Day, Trump signed an executive order that the federal government would only recognize two sexes, male and female.
- He's since called on the Pentagon to formulate a new policy that would target transgender service members.
What they're saying: Chase Strangio, Co-Director of the ACLU's LGBT & HIV Project, said in a statement: "Today's order lays out a clear plan to shut down access to life-saving medical care for transgender youth nationwide, overriding the role of families and putting politics between patients and their doctors."
- "We will not allow this dangerous, sweeping, and unconstitutional order to stand," added Strangio, who defended access to gender-affirming care before the Supreme Court last year.
- Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement: "It is deeply unfair to play politics with people's lives and strip transgender young people, their families, and their providers of the freedom to make necessary health care decisions."
- LGBTQ media advocacy group GLAAD in a statement called the rhetoric in Trump's executive orders "appallingly inaccurate and incoherent" and "already ruled unconstitutional by one judge last week."
- It added the language was "increasingly extreme in defaming transgender people and spreading graphic disinformation about health care that is supported by every major medical association."
Reality check: Gender-affirming care is supported by major medical organizations including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Psychiatric Association, which all concur that gender-affirming care is lifesaving medical care.
- Drugs like puberty blockers are temporary and reversible and used for both trans and non-trans youth who experience early onset puberty.
Between the lines: Fewer than 0.1% of adolescents received drugs for gender-affirming care between 2018 and 2022, per a study led by Harvard University researchers published this month.
- No patient under 12 years old who were transgender or gender diverse received hormones, the study found.
Zoom out: The Supreme Court, meanwhile, seems likely to uphold a ban on gender-affirming care for transgender youth following oral arguments last month.
- Since the first legislative ban on youth gender-affirming care was passed in 2021, such legislation has taken effect in 26 states, per the Human Rights Campaign.
Go deeper: Trump's road map for defunding gender-affirming care
Editor's note: This story has been updated with reactions from the ACLU, GLAAD and Human Rights Campaign.
