The House of Representatives has weighed in on whether military health insurance can cover transgender transition surgeries for the families of military members, the Daily Wire reported.
The House filed an appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Doe v. Austin, where two transgender women, dependents of retired military service members, are fighting to receive transgender benefits from the military's healthcare plan, TRICARE, according to the Daily Wire.
"Tax dollars should not support procedures and treatments that could permanently harm and sterilize young people," House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said to the Daily Wire. "This year's NDAA takes a critical and necessary step to protect the children of American service members by adding a statutory prohibition regarding TRICARE coverage that is related to the case in Maine. House Republicans will not relent in taking action to protect America's children from radical gender ideology and experimental drugs."
The House passed this year's National Defense Authorization Act, which prohibits TRICARE from being used for "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."
A district court ruled for the plaintiffs last month, ruling the statute's exclusion of gender surgeries violated the rights of the transgender women, the Daily Wire reported.
In its legal filing, the House said the Department of Justice has only made a halfhearted attempt to defend the statute.
The DOJ made "only technical and procedural objections" and did not "engage with the merits," the House said in its filing. "DOJ's position appears to be that this litigation may be resolved via settlement. DOJ's lukewarm defense appears to have become a full-blown abandonment of its duty to defend the constitutionality of federal law in this case."