CA-GOV: CA Gov candidates pledge to back gender-affirming care

Ending transgender, nonbinary, and intersex youth’s access to the healthcare they require to live as their authentic selves has been a main goal of the Trump administration. It issued an executive order last year interpreting federal law to mean health providers that are recipients of Medicare or Medicaid coverage are prevented from providing gender-affirming procedures to minors.

The directive led to multiple lawsuits being filed in federal courts by LGBTQ advocacy groups. But it also prompted a number of hospitals to preemptively end their providing such healthcare to young people under the age of 19, such as Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, and Stanford Medicine in the Bay Area.

A recent ruling from the U.S. District Court for the District of Oregon blocked U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.’s declaration issued last December claiming gender-affirming care fails to meet professionally recognized standards of care, therefore doctors or hospitals providing such care from federal healthcare programs like Medicare and Medicaid could be disqualified from them.

Earlier this month, in light of the ruling, California Attorney General Rob Bonta reaffirmed that gender-affirming care remains legal in California. And he reiterated that providers in the Golden State “can and should continue to provide the care their patients count on without fear of unjust retaliation” as the matter works its way through the courts.



https://www.ebar.com/story/165665/News/CA%20Gov%20candidates%20pledge%20to%20back%20gender-affirming%20care