A provision in the $895-billion defense bill passed in the U.S. House of Representatives this week would block some forms of transgender medical care for minors covered by the military’s health-care plan.

Passed Wednesday, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) sets national defense standards and priorities for the 2025 fiscal year.  

According to the provision, “Medical interventions for the treatment of gender dysphoria that could result in sterilization may not be provided to a child under the age of 18.” It was met with praise from House Republicans, most notably Speaker Mike Johnson, who pushed hard for the provision both on camera and behind the scenes.

 

‘Lethality, Not Ideology’

Johnson, of Louisiana, said Wednesday the provision will help “refocus the Pentagon on military lethality, not radical woke ideology.”

“Today’s passage of the annual National Defense Authorization Act includes important wins for our troops and ensures our military has the necessary resources and support to defend our great nation,” Johnson added. “Our men and women in uniform should know their first obligation is protecting our nation.”

Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, also hailed the bill for its inclusion of the provision.

“The transgender policy is very, very important, and I think it’s a major step forward,” Harris said in an interview Tuesday. 

The provision to the defense bill comes on the heels of President-elect Donald Trump’s sweeping electoral victory in November, which was seen by many political experts as a rebuke of “woke” ideology on social issues. Trump placed transgenderism at the forefront of his campaign with a massive television ad buy that featured a video of Vice President Kamala Harris saying she supported taxpayer-funded sex-change operations for criminals. The ad, which aired more than 15,000 times in swing states — and often during NFL games — was seen as instrumental in Trump’s victory. 

Top Democrats on the Armed Services Committee expressed outrage at the provision, citing the urgency many military families feel to procure “gender-affirming” care for their children.

“Blanketly denying health care to people who need it — just because of a biased notion against transgender people — is wrong,” said Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., former Armed Services Committee chairman. “The inclusion of this harmful provision puts the lives of children at risk and may force thousands of service members to make the choice of continuing their military service or leaving to ensure their child can get the health care they need.”

 

Final Tally

In all, the bill represented a 1% increase in the defense budget from the previous year, which is lower than the rate of inflation. Despite supporting the transgender-health-care-for-minors provision, some proponents of the bill were disappointed by the failure of legislators to significantly increase spending on defense. 

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board described the bill as “inadequate to our current defense needs.”

Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., who had negotiated a $25-billion increase in the Senate version of the bill, lamented the failure to include his funding proposal as “a tremendous loss for our national defense.”

The final tally for passage of the bill was 281-140, with 81 Democrats joining Republicans in the vote. Defense-spending bills are often bipartisan, and many pass the House with overwhelming support. Lawmakers on both sides said that support for the bill would have been even higher if not for the inclusion of the transgender-health-care provision. 

Rep. Jill Tokuda, D-Hawaii, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, called the provision “shameful.” 

“For transgender people, gender-affirming care is health care,” she said on Wednesday. “To deny them this care is to deny they exist. The reality is, they do.”

For Rep. Rich McCormick, R-Ga., the decision to support the provision was an easy one. Beyond the fact that these treatments and procedures do not bring relief for children experiencing gender dysphoria, he said, the military should be focused only on increasing its lethality to win wars. 

“I want a military that’s going to survive, kill bad guys, and defend our nation,” he told National Review following the passage of the NDAA. “I don’t want a military focused on transgenderism. Wrong message.”