1. United States
2. Ark.
3. Letter

The current budget provisions bringing the government close to a shutdown are entirely avoidable, if the republican caucus is willing to separate budgetary matters from contrived ideological legislation. The provisions banning healthcare for transgender Americans by stripping federal funding from healthcare services providing gender affirming care should not be under consideration during this budget process, and only serves as a divisive measure to inflame political tensions. These providers may not even have a primary focus on transgender healthcare, and even if they do, all Americans deserve access to healthcare that improves the quality of their lives. Limiting what an individual can do with their own body is quintessential government overreach, if Americans do not have complete control over their own physical being-- arguably the only ownership that is immutable by all external factors-- then what freedoms do they truly have? Not only is this measure in the budgetary process unethical to bring forth during standard budgetary proceedings, it is an afront to the very essence of American freedom-- individual liberty.