Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Lawmakers Plan To Fund Pediatric Training Program Via Appropriations
Roll Call: Democrats Eye Appropriations To Protect Pediatrician Training
House Republicans attempting to tie the reauthorization of a critical pediatrician training program to efforts to limit gender-affirming care for transgender children acknowledge those efforts will collapse. Now lawmakers are looking to fund the program as-is through the appropriations process. Federal authorization for the Children’s Hospitals Graduate Medical Education Program, which trains more than half of pediatric specialists and almost half of general pediatricians nationwide, lapsed on Sept. 30. (Cohen, 12/21)
Axios: Seattle Children's Hospital Sues Texas AG Over Trans Minors Treatment Demands
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has made "sham requests" seeking to force Seattle Children's Hospital to provide details of Texas residents who've received gender-affirming care, alleges a lawsuit from the nonprofit health care provider. Seattle Children's Hospital said in its lawsuit that Paxton's office claimed it was investigating potential violations of Texas' ban on gender-affirming care for minors, but Washington's recently passed "Shield Law" protected it from subpoenas from states seeking to "restrict or criminalize reproductive and gender-affirming care." (Falconer, 12/21)
AP: DeSantis Spread False Information While Pushing Trans Health Care Ban And Restrictions, A Judge Says
A federal judge hearing a challenge to a transgender health care ban for minors and restrictions for adults noted Thursday that Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis repeatedly spread false information about doctors mutilating children’s genitals even though there’s been no such documented cases. The law was sold as defending children from mutilation when it is actually about preventing trans children from getting health care, Judge Robert Hinkle said to Mohammad Jazil, a lawyer for the state. (Farrington, 12/22)
Time: Malpractice Premiums Are Blocking Gender-Affirming Care For Minors
After Iowa lawmakers passed a ban on gender-affirming care for minors in March, managers of an LGBTQ+ health clinic located just across the state line in Moline, Illinois, decided to start offering that care. The added services would provide care to patients who live in largely rural eastern Iowa, including some of the hundreds previously treated at a University of Iowa clinic, saving them half-day drives to clinics in larger cities like Chicago and Minneapolis. (Nowell, 12/21)
St. Louis Public Radio: Advocates Launch Emergency Program For Missouri Trans Kids
Transgender Missourians under 18 and their families can now get help finding gender-affirming care in other states through a regional project operated by a North Carolina-based nonprofit. (Fentem, 12/21)
Also —
AP: For Years, He Couldn't Donate At The Blood Center Where He Worked. Under New FDA Rules, Now He Can
Over the last six years, blood center employee Dylan Smith was often asked how frequently he gave blood himself. His answer was always the same: As a gay man, he couldn’t. That changed this month. Thanks to new federal guidelines finalized in May, gay and bisexual men in monogamous relationships can now donate at many blood centers around the country without abstaining from sex. Bloodworks Northwest, where Smith works as a donor services supervisor, adopted the change on Dec. 6. He and his partner gave blood for the first time the next day. (Valdes and Rush, 12/22)
