Biden Admin Signals Support for Taxpayer-Funded Gender Transition Procedures
Summary from the AllSides News Team
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra suggested this week that the Biden Administration supports using taxpayer dollars to cover "medically necessary" gender transition surgeries.
Key Quotes: When asked by Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) about taxpayers funding transition surgeries and performing those surgeries on minors without their parents’ consent, Becerra said that "Payers, both public and private, should cover treatments which medical experts determine to be medically necessary." Miller said Becerra "confirmed that the Biden Administration is using taxpayer dollars to push young children to have sex change operations and take dangerous chemicals that do permanent damage to their bodies."
For Context: In some states such as Maine, taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries have risen in recent years, from 24 surgeries in 2019 to 82 in 2022. Recent studies estimate that the number of U.S. youths identifying as transgender has doubled in the last five years. Maine, California, and other states have approved using taxpayer money for gender transition procedures in recent years. Meanwhile, some Republicans have introduced legislation seeking to ban "the use of federal funds for gender reassignment medical interventions."
How the Media Covered It: Becerra's comments have only been covered by right-rated outlets, with some framing taxpayer-funded gender transition surgeries as a violation of religious freedom and a misuse of federal and state funds. Left- and center-rated sources rarely, if ever, focus on gender transition procedures in the context of taxpayer funding, and instead concentrate more on issues of access and acceptance.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Right
Biden Administration Confirms It Wants Taxpayers To Pay For Sex-Change Operations On Minors
The Biden administration supports using taxpayer dollars to fund sex-change operations on minors, Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra confirmed in written testimony submitted to the House Committee on Education Labor on Nov. 29.
Republican Illinois Rep. Mary Miller questioned Becerra during an April hearing about the administration’s position on taxpayer funding for sex-change operations on minors. Becerra equivocated at the time, telling the congresswoman that the administration “will continue to comply with the law and provide people with the protections they need to get the medical services they are...
From the Right
Sex-change Surgeries, Paid for by Taxpayers, Rising Sharply in Maine 
The number of taxpayer-funded transsexual surgeries in Maine has nearly quadrupled since 2019, the year Democratic Gov. Janet Mills modified MaineCare policy to cover procedures advocates for gender ideology describe as “gender affirming care.”
The number of “gender affirming” surgical procedures paid for by MaineCare almost doubled each year following the policy change, from 24 surgeries in 2019 to 44 in 2020 and then to 82 in 2021, according to records provided to The Maine Wire by the Maine Department of Health and Human Services.
MaineCare, the state’s version of...
From the Right
HHS secretary signals sex-change surgeries for minors should be covered by taxpayers: Report
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra indicated that the Biden administration supports using taxpayer dollars to cover treatments, such as gender transition surgery, for minors that medical experts have determined are "medically necessary."
Becerra signaled that the administration supports coverage for transition-related treatments for both adults and children in written testimony submitted to the House Committee on Education and Labor on Tuesday obtained by the Daily Caller.
"The Biden-Harris Administration supports the upcoming release of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) Standards of Care Version 8 and believes that all children and adults should...
AllSides Picks
May 11th, 2024
May 9th, 2024
More News about Healthcare from the Left, Center and Right
From the Left
From the Center
From the Right
