Medicaid will no longer pay for so-called gender affirming care thanks to GOP-led legislation, Newsmax reported. The "big, beautiful bill" passed in the House on Thursday included the eleventh-hour addition banning federal funding for the controversial medical care.
An earlier version of the bill prohibited treatments for children under Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program. It bars these federal programs from paying for hormone treatments, puberty blockers, and bodily mutilations for gender-confused minors.
A manager's amendment later added to the bill extended the prohibition to recipients regardless of age. The final bill passed 215-214, with all Democrats and just two Republicans voting against it.
Andy Harris, chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, skirted the issue by voting "present." Predictably, the left was not pleased with this provision and its implications.
The passage of this bill already triggered leftists as it codified much of President Donald Trump's agenda. However, it's particularly offensive to people like Caleb Smith, director of LGBTQI+ policy at the Center for American Progress, because of the transgender care issue
Smith claims that the expansion is proof that banning gender affirming care outright was the goal all along. "The bans on coverage for trans medical care were made so much worse, really, in the eleventh hour of this bill," Smith said in a statement.
"And what a display of how it's really not just about youth. It's never just been about youth; It's always been about curtailing access to medical care and bodily autonomy. All they had to do was strike ‘under 18' from the bill, and now it's everybody," Smith went on.
"There's a wildly strong case for this to be discrimination — it is discrimination. It really clearly violates equal protection because what we're saying, essentially, is that if you are a cisgender man and you want access to testosterone, you can have it, but if you are a transgender man and you want access to testosterone, ‘Sorry, we're not going to cover that,'" Smith claimed.
This argument about discrimination would be credible if the treatments being proposed weren't about genital mutilation and chemical castration, but it's not. There's no reason these should be part of medical treatments, let alone those paid for by the American people, as some Republicans have pointed out.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX) was the one who pushed through the ban for children after speaking out against it for years. "The Crenshaw Amendment will become law — and it's long overdue," Crenshaw said.
"Gender transition procedures are the lobotomy of our generation. So-called ‘gender-affirming care' isn't healthcare — it's fringe science with no proven benefit and massive risks," Crenshaw asserted.
He touted his addition to the bill in a video posted to X, formerly Twitter, on Wednesday. "Just a year ago, few believed we could put a stop to the radical gender ideology being pushed on kids—especially the kind masquerading as medicine, funded with your tax dollars. But now, we’re about to do exactly that," he said in the caption.
Just a year ago, few believed we could put a stop to the radical gender ideology being pushed on kids—especially the kind masquerading as medicine, funded with your tax dollars. But now, we’re about to do exactly that.
The Crenshaw Amendment in President Trump’s One Big… pic.twitter.com/cRlvCfZeeW
— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) May 21, 2025
The issue of transgender medicine has been divisive, but limiting government spending on it is long overdue. These procedures are barbaric and ghastly, and it's about time someone put the brakes on them, even if it's just through cutting some of the funding.
