Republican lawmakers have snuck a provision into a defense spending measure that would restrict what types of care transgender children of military members can receive, inserting the language into the bill at the last minute after having negotiated a previous version of the bill with Democrats.
The new provision in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) appears on page 399 and is a single paragraph long. It adds to Section 1079(a) of U.S. Code 10, which deals primarily with the types of medical care spouses and children of members of the military can or cannot receive.
The excerpt in question ostensibly deals with restricting surgical care for trans minors — a treatment option that is incredibly rare, and only administered, with parental consent, to older teens who have exhausted all other treatment options, when it’s offered at all.
Some worry, however, that the provision could be used to extend restrictions on other forms of gender-affirming care, denying trans youth the ability to use puberty blockers or, in some cases, hormone treatments as part of their care plans.
Medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization may not be provided to a child under the age of 18.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) lauded the inclusion of the new text, misleadingly claiming that it would prevent children from being “sterilized,” despite the vast majority of gender-affirming treatments — including surgical care — not resulting in that outcome.
Johnson also said that the intent of the new paragraph in the NDAA was to “permanently [ban] transgender medical treatment for minors” who were covered by military-based insurance plans. Such care is not only safe, but deemed to be life-saving by medical professionals, as it reduces depression and suicidality rates among youth who receive it.
When it was revealed earlier this week that the provision was included in the NDAA, Democrats attempted but failed to get it removed. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Washington), the ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, blasted Republicans for inserting the new language targeting transgender youth.
“Blanketly denying health care to people who clearly need it, just because of a biased notion against transgender people, is wrong,” Smith said in a statement. “This provision injected a level of partisanship not traditionally seen in defense bills.”
A coalition of LGBTQ rights groups, including Human Rights Campaign, Lambda Legal, and others, also spoke out against the provision, writing in an open letter that its terms were “a betrayal of the promise to our military families and an unnecessary threat to our national security.”
“This care for the treatment of gender dysphoria, often referred to as gender-affirming care, isn’t ‘special’ or ‘experimental’ health care — it is ordinary health care supported by medical science and managed by physicians,” the letter stated.
Transgender rights activist Allison Chapman warned that the provision included in the NDAA would lead to additional attacks on trans kids and the transgender population in general.
“It’s not even 2025 yet and we are already close to passing the first gender-affirming care ban on a national level,” Chapman said in a statement to Truthout. “In the coming months, I expect these attacks to increase significantly, as Republicans take control of the federal government, with many of them passing. This is just the beginning.”
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