Pennsylvania State Capitol – Photo: Ken Fager/flickr.
A Pennsylvania Senate committee has tacked on an anti-transgender amendment to a bill aimed at renewing the state’s Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP, through 2019. If the bill is not approved by Dec. 31, the entire CHIP program will lapse.
As a result, lawmakers in the Keystone State may be forced to approve a ban on providing health care for transgender youth in order to salvage the program for an estimated 176,000 children across the state, whose parents make too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to purchase private insurance.
The amendment, sponsored by State Sen. Donald White (R-Indiana), would prohibit CHIP from covering the costs of any services related to gender transition.
Specifically, the amendment states: “The benefit package for eligible children may not include reimbursement for gender or sex reassignment surgery or gender or sex transition services, including, but not limited to, physician’s services, inpatient and outpatient hospital services, prescribed drugs or counseling services related to such surgery or services.”
“It is completely inappropriate to use state funds to pay for sex change operations for children,” White said in a statement. “This program provides vital health care services for Pennsylvania’s children. It is irresponsible to allow its limited resources to be used for sex change procedures.”
But while White is obsessed with the idea that doctors will be green-lighting young children for gender confirmation surgery en masse, the wording of the amendment is so vague and overly broad that it could potentially be used to deny other types of medically necessary care to transgender youth.
For example, depending on how the state interprets “gender or sex transition services” and “medications,” the prohibition could be used to prevent doctors from prescribing puberty blockers, hormones, or non-surgical treatments for gender dysphoria to transgender children who get their insurance through CHIP.
Additionally, as the progressive website ThinkProgress notes, the World Professional Association for Transgender Health recommends in its standards of care that youth should only undergo gender confirmation surgery after they reach the age of medical consent, which is 18 in Pennsylvania. While CHIP provides coverage up to an individual’s 19th birthday, the number of transgender youth who 1) qualify for CHIP; 2) actually opt for surgery; and 3) fall between the ages of 18 and 19 makes them a minority within a minority.
Thus, the language of White’s amendment — depending on how it is interpreted by government bureaucrats — could punish a larger number of transgender youth by denying them care, based on an unsubstantiated fear that a handful of 18-year-olds might opt for surgery. For instance, the state could refuse to cover a transgender youth’s regular doctor checkups, prescriptions, and even their ability to access mental health services or counseling if they deem such things to be “related” to gender transition.
The original version of the CHIP reauthorization bill, without the transgender prohibition, unanimously passed the state House in June. Last week, the GOP-led Senate Banking and Insurance Committee approved the anti-transgender amendment on a party-line vote. The amended CHIP legislation was subsequently approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on Tuesday. The bill now heads to the full Senate for approval.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania blasted the amendment for being both divisive and discriminatory.
“Transgender youth, including those who participate in CHIP, deserve access to healthcare,” Reggie Shuford, the executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania, said in a statement. “In fact, the CHIP statute demands that the program covers all medically necessary care. The treatments that can’t be covered under this bill, such as counseling and hormone therapy, are medically necessary and sometimes life-saving for transgender youth.”
Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf’s (D) office has expressed opposition to the amendment and called for Republican lawmakers in Harrisburg to pass a clean CHIP reauthorization bill. However, it is not clear whether Wolf would be willing to veto the bill should it reach his desk, as such a move could potentially torpedo the popular program altogether.
“The only amendment that has been added to the CHIP renewal bill is one that will harm transgender youth,” Naiymah Sanchez, the transgender advocacy coordinator at the ACLU of Pennsylvania, added. “Trans kids shouldn’t be used as a political ploy.”
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to take up a challenge to a Colorado law prohibiting mental health therapists from subjecting LGBTQ youth to conversion therapy.
The court will hear the case during its next term, which begins in October and runs through June 2026.
Conversion therapy is a practice intended to change a person's sexual orientation or gender identity to align with heterosexual or cisgender norms. Most mainstream medical organizations have largely discredited it as ineffective and potentially even harmful.
Yet, many social conservatives insist that people who hold religious beliefs opposing homosexuality should be allowed to enroll their children, or, in the case of adults, themselves, in the practice.
A grant helping to fund a study on the potential health risks posed by synthetic menstrual hygiene products was revoked after being flagged for including transgender men.
The $600,000 grant, "Farm to Feminine Hygiene: Enhancing the Textiles Lab for Research, Extension, and Scientific Instrumentation for Teaching at Southern University," was awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture in 2024.
It sought to "address the growing concerns and issues surrounding menstruation, including the potential health risks posed to users of synthetic feminine hygiene products," according to the project's documentation, which was publicly filed on the USDA website.
An Ohio law prohibiting transgender youth from accessing gender-affirming care has been declared unconstitutional by a state appeals court. The court has permanently blocked officials from enforcing the ban.
On March 18, a three-judge panel of the state's 10th District Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's ruling that allowed the state to enforce the ban, reported NBC News.
The ban on gender-affirming care -- which passed along with a ban on transgender women and girls from participating on female-designated sports teams -- was passed in late 2023 but was later vetoed by Republican Gov. Mike DeWine.
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