Democratic leaders refuse to comment on if they support access to transgender surgeries for minors.
The White House has emphasized the need to protect gender-affirming care for transgender youth, which it claims is "life-saving," but declined to comment on if this includes sex-reassignment surgeries. House Majority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also did not respond to request for comment.
On Friday, Florida’s Board of Medicine and state Board of Osteopathic Medicine approved a proposed ban on puberty blockers and sex-reassignment surgery for transgender minors. States such as Alabama, Arkansas and Texas have attempted to ban hormone treatment and surgeries for transgender minors through legislative and executive action but have faced challenges in court.
The Department of Justice in March threatened legal action against these state bans, which they claimed violate Title IX’s protection against discrimination based on gender. The Department of Health and Human Services lists top, bottom and face surgeries as gender-affirming care for transgender youth. The surgeries, it states, are "typically used in adulthood or case-by-case in adolescence."
