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Gender-affirming care ban leaves Trump with ‘blood on his hands,’ group says, joining others in outrage

Kelley Robinson Rodrigo Heng Lehtinen Donald Trump
Brian Stukes/Getty Images; Shuran Huang for The Washington Post via Getty Images; Anna Moneymaker/shutterstock

(1) WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 15: President of the Human Rights Campaign, Kelley Robinson speaks onstage during the NBJC Equity March on June 15, 2024 in Washington, DC.

(2) Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen poses for a portrait at home in Washington, DC on June 21, 2023.

(3) ZEBULON, GEORGIA - OCTOBER 23: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump looks on during a roundtable with faith leaders at Christ Chapel on October 23, 2024

“Only eight days into his second term, President Donald Trump has blood on his hands,” executive director of Advocates for Trans Equality Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen said earlier this week.

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As families across the United States struggle to understand President Donald Trump’s attacks on transgender people, medical groups, advocacy groups, and political leaders are grappling with the administration’s latest executive orders.

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The Trump administration has escalated its war on transgender rights, this time by cutting off federal support for life-saving gender-affirming care for minors. A sweeping executive order signed Tuesday bans federal agencies from funding or supporting medical treatment for transgender youth under 19.

The executive order directs multiple federal agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Justice, to dismantle existing policies supporting gender-affirming care. It prohibits hospitals and providers that receive federal funding, including Medicare and Medicaid, from offering this care to minors, even if treatment is privately funded. It also removes transgender-related health care coverage from federal employee insurance plans and bars TRICARE, the military’s health system, from covering gender-affirming treatments for minors.

Trump’s administration claims the order is meant to protect children, describing gender-affirming care as “irreversible medical harm.” However, every major medical organization—including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the Endocrine Society—has affirmed that gender-affirming treatments are safe, effective, and often life-saving.

The order also singles out the World Professional Association for Transgender Health, dismissing its widely accepted “Standards of Care Version 8” as lacking scientific integrity. It directs federal agencies to rescind all policies that rely on WPATH guidance and orders HHS to conduct a review of existing literature on gender dysphoria, promoting research that challenges the consensus on gender-affirming care. The Advocate contacted WPATH and the American Academy of Pediatrics for comment but did not receive a response.

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LGBTQ+ advocates say the executive order is not only unnecessary but actively harmful. According to a policy brief from UCLA’s Williams Institute, the order will not take effect immediately, as it requires further administrative rulemaking. However, its impact could still be devastating, discouraging medical providers from offering care and leaving trans youth without critical health services.

The Williams Institute notes that gender-affirming care follows decades of medical research and adheres to well-established treatment protocols. Puberty blockers and hormone therapy, both targeted by the order, are also prescribed for cisgender youth in various medical situations—making this restriction uniquely discriminatory.

The American Medical Association strongly opposes such bans. A representative for the organization directed The Advocate to former AMA President Jack Resneck Jr.’s prior viewpoint statement in which he spoke out against political interference in medical decision-making. “Decisions about gender-affirming care are properly made through shared decision-making between the patient, family, and physicians, without politicians inserting themselves into the medical exam room or second-guessing healthcare decisions,” Resneck wrote.

“Everyone deserves the freedom to make deeply personal health care decisions for themselves and their families—no matter your income, zip code, or health coverage,” Human Rights Campaign president Kelley Robinson told The Advocate in a statement. She denounced the executive order as “a brazen attempt to put politicians in between people and their doctors.”

Related: HRC & Lambda Legal announce lawsuit to block Trump’s renewed moves to ban transgender military service

Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, executive director of Advocates for Trans Equality, was even more direct. “Only eight days into his second term, President Donald Trump has blood on his hands,” he wrote. “This executive order not only prohibits but sets the stage for criminalizing medically necessary gender-affirming care, endangering tens of thousands of transgender adolescents.”

Gay Democratic California U.S. Rep. Mark Takano, chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, condemned the order, calling it an effort by Trump to override medical judgment. “Decisions about a young person’s healthcare belong with the patient, their families, and their doctors,” Takano said. “Politicians should not be overriding the private medical decisions of any person, period.”

Lambda Legal announced plans to challenge the order in court. Omar Gonzalez-Pagan, the group’s senior counsel and health care strategist, called the policy “morally reprehensible and patently unlawful.” He warned that it would subject trans youth to “extreme and unnecessary pain and suffering” while stripping parents of their ability to care for their children.

“We fought previous attempts by the first Trump administration to restrict health care, and we won,” Gonzalez-Pagan said. “We stand ready to fight back against this even more pernicious effort.”

Cait Smith, director of LGBTQI+ policy at the Center for American Progress, linked the executive order to broader conservative efforts to restrict personal freedoms. “Ask yourself, would you want Donald Trump in the exam room making your medical decisions? That’s exactly what happened to trans kids and their families today,” she said. “This executive order is straight out of the same playbook MAGA Republicans used to interfere with women’s reproductive rights—now they’re targeting trans youth.”

Trump’s order is expected to face immediate lawsuits, with legal experts arguing that it violates equal protection and non-discrimination laws. Meanwhile, the U.S. Supreme Court is preparing to rule on U.S. v. Skrmetti, a case that could determine the legality of state bans on gender-affirming care.

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