- United States
- Mich.
- Letter
Fight back against the Trump Administration's August 11 CMS rule banning Medicaid and CHIP from covering gender-affirming care for transgender youth. This rule doesn't take effect until October, which means there is still time to act — through litigation, state-level funding commitments, or congressional pressure. I want you to use every tool available to stop it.
This is not a fringe medical debate. Nearly 35,000 public comments were submitted against this rule, the overwhelming majority in opposition. Federal courts have already blocked previous Trump administration attempts to strip this care, finding them legally overreaching. The Congressional Equality Caucus has stated plainly that this rule exceeds CMS's statutory authority. The Trevor Project, GLAD Law, and the National Women's Law Center all agree: this fight is not over.
What this rule actually does is place the burden squarely on low-income trans youth and their families, who depend on Medicaid because they have no other option. Decisions about a young person's medical care belong to the patient, their family, and their doctor — not to Dr. Oz or Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Gender-affirming care is lifesaving. Stripping it based on politics, not medicine, is unconscionable.