On the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday morning, Congresswoman Sarah McBride, a Democrat representing Delaware, framed the U.S. House’s impending votes on criminalizing transgender people’s health care as a measure not only of policy, but of political intent — a decision, she said, to elevate ideology over science and cruelty over care.
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Speaking alongside fellow Democratic Reps. Julie Johnson of Texas and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, McBride criticized House Republican leaders for scheduling votes on two anti-transgender bills this week while taking no action to avert a looming health care cliff for millions of Americans as Affordable Care Act tax credits near expiration.
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“We are two legislative days away from the Affordable Care Act tax credits expiring, when millions of people will see their health care premiums skyrocket,” McBride said. “And GOP leadership … has decided to schedule two votes on anti-trans bills and precisely zero votes on extending the Affordable Care Act tax credits.”
Watch Rep. Sarah McBride speak with reporters about Republican anti-trans bills
She also called out the decision to have the votes as an intentional distraction, one that pits a tiny minority against an ultra-wealthy few. “They would rather have us focus in and debate a misunderstood and vulnerable one percent of the population instead of focusing on the fact that they are gutting everyone’s health care in order to pay for tax breaks for the wealthiest one percent,” McBride said.
McBride said the fixation runs deeper than legislative timing. “All Republican politicians care about is making the rich richer and attacking trans people,” she said. “They are obsessed with trans people. I actually think they think more about trans people than trans people think about trans people.”
The first bill, introduced by outgoing Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and expected to receive a House vote Wednesday evening, would criminalize certain forms of gender-affirming care for minors by expanding federal definitions of “genital and bodily mutilation and chemical castration.” The measure would expose doctors and potentially parents to felony charges, fines, and prison sentences of up to 10 years.
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A second bill, sponsored by Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas and expected to follow later this week, would prohibit Medicaid from covering gender-affirming care for transgender youth, even as the same treatments remain covered for patients who are not trans.
McBride argued that both measures reflect an effort to override medical consensus in favor of politics. Standards of care, she said, should be written by clinicians and researchers, “not in Washington.”
“Millions of people across this country are entering into this conversation with understandable questions, with goodwill, good intentions, and in good faith,” McBride said. “But Republican politicians are not. They are trying to use transgender people as political pawns.”
All major medical associations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association, have endorsed gender-affirming care for minors as evidence-based and necessary health care that can vastly improve the lives of patients.
Related: Sarah McBride slams Republicans for blocking amendments on trans military service in defense bill
A day earlier, during a press call organized by the Human Rights Campaign, advocates, lawmakers, doctors, and parents warned that the bills would criminalize routine medical care and deepen an already worsening health care crisis.
“This is the last week Congress is in session in 2025,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said Tuesday. “There are plenty of things that the American people are begging for them to work on … but instead, the MAGA GOP majority is ending their year the same way they started it — attacking transgender kids.”
Robinson said Greene’s bill would target care recommended by every major medical organization in the country, drawing a stark contrast between lawmakers’ priorities and families' needs. “They’ve pardoned people who tried to overthrow the government,” she said. “But now they want to put pediatricians and parents into a jail cell for caring for their kids.”
Back on the Capitol steps, McBride grounded the debate in personal history, describing the cost of growing up without access to affirming care. She said she did not come out as transgender until she was 21, despite knowing her identity throughout her childhood.
Related: Watch Sarah McBride troll absent Republicans hours ahead of another Trump government shutdown
“That means 21 years of pain,” she said. “Twenty-one years of unwavering homesickness that only went away when I was able to get the care that I needed.”
Her “biggest regret,” McBride added, was never having “a childhood without that pain.” She said she “marvel[s] at the courage” of transgender young people who are coming out today despite what she described as hostility emanating from Congress itself.
As the House moves toward the first of the two votes, McBride said the moment demanded clarity about whom the government exists to serve. “All any of us want is to live a life of purpose and happiness and wholeness,” she said. “It is already hard enough to raise a family. It is already hard enough to be a kid, and the government should not make it harder.”
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