Healthcare continues to be the talk of the town around Washington, and with the debates come its nasty neighbors, the antithesis of healthcare itself: abortion and “trans” mutilation.
The House is setting up votes on three healthcare-related bills this week: the Do No Harm in Medicaid Act, the Protect Children’s Innocence Act, and the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act. Here’s what you need to know.
Congressman Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas 2nd) introduced the Do No Harm in Medicaid Act within the first days of the 119th Congress, following through on his commitment to battle gender ideology head-on in Congress. The bill would prohibit Medicaid funding for so-called gender transitions for minors. The term lists specific procedures prohibited when performed to intentionally change the body of such an individual (including by disrupting the body’s development, inhibiting its natural functions, or modifying its appearance) to no longer correspond to the individual’s sex. Procedures include castration, sterilization, vasectomy, hysterectomy, and more. While these can certainly serve as necessary interventions in the correct medical context, performing them electively will likely cause irreversible damage to the child’s body and violate the doctor’s oath to “do no harm.”
However, gender activists have hijacked medical services to promote these harmful, last resort measures as low-risk, guaranteed fixes to gender dysphoria. Studies prove that most children grow out of gender dysphoria naturally, but if they fall into this trap, they could be left permanently sterile or worse.
Not only that, but because they wrongly promote these elective, yet risky, procedures as necessary, taxpayers are expected to foot the bill. That’s why Congressman Crenshaw is seeking to amend the Social Security Act to include these procedures as a “prohibited service” for Medicaid use when used for the reasons described. This includes surgeries, hormone therapies, and puberty blockers intended to alter a child’s sex traits. Upon introducing the bill, Crenshaw stated, “Using Medicaid funds for unproven and irreversible procedures on minors is not only medically irresponsible but also a betrayal of public trust. This bill ensures that Medicaid’s limited resources are used only for evidence-based, medically necessary care.”
Additionally, as one of her last acts in Congress before resigning, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene’s (R-Georgia 14th) Protect Children’s Innocence Act would outlaw these procedures altogether. Anyone performing surgeries or administering medication for the purpose of changing a child’s sex traits to align with the opposite sex could spend up to ten years in federal prison. Though the bill hasn’t moved since May, Greene posted that she landed the floor vote by supporting the National Defense Authorization Act.
“My bill stops the mutilation of kids and holds those responsible for performing or facilitating these barbaric procedures accountable,” she noted in a statement.
Though the bill appears to be rushed to the floor, it is not the House’s only opportunity to pass such protections. Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee (CWALAC) has been working with a coalition of pro-family advocates on the Chloe Cole Act (H.R. 5483). This CWALAC-endorsed legislation would also protect minors from similar procedures and ensure a private right of action for victims who were deceived into these harmful procedures.
Also included in the House’s schedule is H.R. 6703, or the Lower Health Care Premiums for All Americans Act. This bill seeks to address subsidy-related discussions in the House by promoting flexibility and prioritizing putting money back in consumers’ hands. We are very grateful to the bill’s sponsor, Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa 1st), for ensuring the bill adequately prohibits taxpayer funding streams to abortion providers. Several of the House provisions thus far have not included such protections.
As CWALAC continues to monitor healthcare discussions, we, too, will ensure real healthcare remains in focus. At the bare minimum, federal leaders must be held accountable to protect taxpayer funding from elective, irreversible procedures on minors, and of course, the destruction of unborn human life.
