Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) stated that she is working to secure gender transition surgeries for children at the “national level” amid the Trump administration’s moves to ban the practice.
“That is something I’m working for at the national level,” Pelosi said, “and we are hoping that we can have gender-affirming care for our trans kids. It’s a sad thing for us. I’m not totally, I don’t know what effect we can have nationally with what we have going on in the White House and in Congress. It’s really very sad.”
Pelosi’s comments come as several states have filed a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s efforts against gender transition surgeries.
President Trump signed an executive order in January to protect children from gender mutilation. The order declared that “it is the policy of the United States that it will not fund, sponsor, promote, assist, or support the so-called ‘transition’ of a child from one sex to another, and it will rigorously enforce all laws that prohibit or limit these destructive and life-altering procedures.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a memo in April directing those at the Justice Department to enforce a law making transgender surgeries illegal.
“I am putting medical practitioners, hospitals and clinics on notice: In the United States, it is a felony to perform, attempt to perform or conspire to perform female genital mutilation (‘FGM’) on any person under the age of 18,” Bondi’s memo said. “That crime carries a maximum prison sentence of 10 years per count. I am directing all U.S. Attorneys to investigate all suspected cases of FGM — under the banner of so-called ‘gender-affirming care’ or otherwise — and to prosecute all FGM offenses to the fullest extent possible.”
