![\"WASHINGTON,](\"https:\/\/theintercept.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/GettyImages-2207849065_3d81b9.jpg?fit=8192%2C5464\")
For trans people<\/span> in the United States, the year is ending much as it began: with a flurry of assaults<\/a> on their very existence from Donald Trump\u2019s regime. Attacks on trans people, especially trans youth, have been a constant throughout Trump\u2019s second term so far, but the government took advantage of the year-end lull to attempt to push through a series of measures aimed at fully decimating health care provisions for trans youth.<\/p>\n The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in mid-December announced<\/a> proposals that, if enacted, would be a de facto ban on all gender-affirming medical care for young people in the entire U.S., where this care is already banned or restricted in 27 states. The new rules, which are now in a 60-day comment period, threaten to cut off federal Medicaid and Medicare funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy, to minors \u2014 effectively forcing hospitals to stop offering it. Without this funding, practically no hospital can survive.<\/p>\n The same week HHS announced its plans, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sent letters<\/a> to a dozen manufacturers and retailers of chest binders, warning that the products were in violation of federal law since they were not registered as medical devices. <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Heading into 2026, we know we can expect more of the relentless same from Republicans. When it comes to making trans lives unliveable, Trump\u2019s party and its anti-trans zealots will throw everything against the wall to see what sticks. The open question is whether Democratic leaders will learn from their mistakes and actually stand up for the trans kids and adults on the frontlines of Trump\u2019s fascist onslaught. <\/p>\n Indeed, Democrats nationwide have an opportunity right now to show what it looks like to robustly oppose measures deployed by the Trump administration to hack away at essential health care. They can refuse to let HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy and his quack accomplice, Dr. Mehmet Oz, quietly and unilaterally push through dangerous and blatantly anti-science rules that would affect every hospital in the country. To do this, though, Democratic leaders must unite to support trans youth. <\/p>\n The latest administration moves are devious \u2013 using Medicaid and Medicare funding and FDA regulations as cudgels to coerce health care providers and related businesses to stop offering lifesaving services and tools to young people. Journalist and trans rights advocate Erin Reed described<\/a> the HHS plan as \u201cthe single most aggressive attack on transgender healthcare in U.S. history\u201d since \u201cits adoption would likely force every hospital and major clinic that relies on Medicaid to immediately cease providing transgender youth care.\u201d<\/p>\n Even threatening such a policy serves to chill health care providers. The point is to apply constant pressure and add layers of complication and uncertainty so hospitals and health care systems fall in line out of fear. This has been the Republican playbook for years when it comes to hacking away at reproductive<\/a> and gender-affirming<\/a> care<\/a>. Such efforts depend on compliance<\/a>, and \u2013 particularly when it comes to anti-trans policies and laws \u2013 have faced all too little serious opposition from Democratic leaders.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n