RICHMOND, Va. — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday unveiled a series of regulatory actions designed to block access to 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 in a news conference on Thursday. “Sex-rejecting procedures rob children of their futures.”
A January executive order and its support from Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares led to VCU Health suspending gender-affirming medication and surgery for those under 19, and ultimately ending transgender care for children in July.
Watch: VCU Health ends gender-affirming care services for youth patients
In wake of the announcement, senior transgender rights attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Virginia Wyatt Rolla released a statement emphasizing that gender-affirming care is still legal in Virginia.
"Today’s proposed rules don’t change the fact that gender-affirming care is still legal in the Commonwealth, but they do threaten hospitals that provide it by proposing to block them from receiving Medicaid and Medicare funding for any care for any patient," Rolla stated. "Until the public has commented on whether we want to hold hospitals hostage with politically-motivated rules like these, all Virginia providers – including those at hospitals – can continue care without interruption, because these rules are not finalized or in effect."
They go on to say that even if the rules are finalized, they are not a federal mandate.
"Virginia providers should resist any attempts to insert politics into the legal, lifesaving care they’ve been providing in Virginia for years," their statement reads.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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