Stories

Twenty-Two States and D.C. Sue to Stop the Rule That Cuts Off Federal Medicaid and CHIP Money for Transgender Minors — Filed Six Weeks Before It Takes Effect, and RFK Jr. Says the Care "Fails to Meet the Evidentiary Standard Our Children Deserve"

On September 2-3, 2026 a coalition of 22 state attorneys general and the District of Columbia, joined by the Governor of Pennsylvania, filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts to block a Department of Health and Human Services rule that bars federal Medicaid and CHIP reimbursement for gender-affirming care for minors. The rule, finalized by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on August 13, 2026 and effective October 13, prohibits federal matching funds for puberty-suppressing medication, hormone therapy and surgery for Medicaid beneficiaries under 18 and CHIP beneficiaries under 19 — while leaving the identical treatments reimbursable when provided to patients who are not transgender. Children already on hormone therapy get up to six months of continued funding after the effective date. HHS received more than 30,000 comments on the proposal; more than 90 percent opposed it. The complaint argues the rule exceeds HHS's statutory authority, misuses the evidence offered to justify it, and would set a precedent that the executive branch can substitute a categorical agency ban for the individualized judgments of licensed clinicians without any authorization from Congress. Oregon Attorney General Dan Rayfield led the filing; California's Rob Bonta, Illinois's Kwame Raoul, Maryland's Anthony Brown, Connecticut's William Tong and Massachusetts's Andrea Joy Campbell co-led. HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had defended the rule when it was finalized in August, saying the government would no longer fund procedures he characterized as carrying risk of irreversible harm.

“We will keep defending the right to keep these medical choices between patients, families and their doctors.”

The Pentagon Publishes the Clinical Rules for Hegseth's Mandatory Testosterone Testing — and Pulls Them Down the Next Day — Seven Weeks After a Senator Who Lost Both Legs in Iraq Said the Program Sounded "Like Gender-Affirming Care to Me"

On September 2, 2026 the Pentagon posted a draft "Clinical Guidance for Health and Human Performance Optimization" implementing Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth's July order that every active-duty and reserve service member aged 30 and older be screened annually for testosterone deficiency, with separate screening pathways written for men and women. On September 3 the document and the accompanying statement from Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell were removed from the website. A U.S. official said the draft "has been temporarily rescinded to allow for updates," and that interim guidance remains in force — so the mandate itself stands while the clinical rules for carrying it out are rewritten. Hegseth announced the program on July 15, 2026, framing it as restoring rather than enhancing capability and calling it necessary for troops to operate at their "absolute best." Screening is mandatory at 30 and up and voluntary below it, with testosterone replacement therapy available to those who test low. No other military requires the screening absent a specific medical indication, and four of six physicians surveyed by Military Times said there was no solid evidence that universal screening at 30 would improve readiness. The Democratic reaction has run along two lines. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, an Army veteran who lost both legs in Iraq, and Rep. Chrissy Houlahan, an Air Force veteran, both pointed out that a government-funded hormone program for men sits awkwardly beside the same administration's ban on hormone therapy for transgender troops, and both asked why the screening does not extend to women in uniform given elevated infertility rates in the force. Houlahan called it the department's "latest culture-war obsession"; Sen. Mark Kelly, a Navy combat pilot, called the change simply "weird."