National Women's Law Center (NWLC) Blasts Trump Administration's Escalation of Attacks on Trans Community

Washington, DC - December 18, 2025 - In a major escalation of its attacks on the transgender community, the Trump administration released a slate of proposed rules today that undermine care for transgender youth and protections for transgender people of all ages.

• The first proposed rule would bar federal Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program (CHIP) funding from covering gender-affirming care for transgender youth.

• The second proposed rule seeks to coerce hospitals into denying this care for young people by threatening to strip away their Medicaid and Medicare funding.

• The third would take away critical nondiscrimination protections for many transgender people.
• This proposed rule would categorically exclude gender dysphoria from disability nondiscrimination requirements that apply to entities receiving funding from the Department of Health and Human Services, opening many transgender people up to denials and mistreatment in a range of essential programs.

These proposed rules come one day after the House voted to criminalize providers and parents for supporting transgender youth in accessing lifesaving care in one of the most extreme anti-trans health care bills ever considered by the U.S. Congress.

Fatima Goss Graves, president and CEO of the National Women's Law Center (NWLC), released the following statement in response:

"Imagine being a young person trying to become your true self - and the loudest bully in your life isn't a classmate, but the president of the United States. The proposed rules targeting care would make it exponentially harder for trans youth to access lifesaving gender-affirming care. And the rule that would take away nondiscrimination protections would impact many trans people across all ages, putting them at risk of being denied access to basic services

"These attacks, like so many before them, have nothing to do with proven medicine or science - and everything to do with cruelty and control. They only serve to exacerbate the health care crisis caused by the Trump administration, which continues to put government between families and their doctors, while prioritizing ideology over coverage. Taken together, these policies betray this administration's true purpose: to deprive transgender people of the basic rights owed to everyone. We will fight relentlessly to stop these rules from taking effect."

The National Women's Law Center fights for gender justice-in the courts, in public policy, and in our society-working across the issues that are central to the lives of women and girls. We use the law in all its forms to change culture and drive solutions to the gender inequity that shapes our society and to break down the barriers that harm all of us-especially women of color, LGBTQ people, and low-income women and families. For 50 years, we have been on the leading edge of every major legal and policy victory for women.