WASHINGTON, D.C. (LifeSiteNews) — A massive defense bill will prohibit taxpayer dollars from being spent on permanently damaging transgender drugs and surgeries for minor children of service members.
The 1,800+ page National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) passed the U.S. House of Representatives on Wednesday afternoon by a vote of 281 to 140. It must pass by the end of the year.
The American Principles Project praised the bill for defunding “sterilizing sex-change procedures for minors” in a statement sent to LifeSiteNews.
The vote “marks a precedent-setting victory over the predatory transgender industry,” President Terry Schilling stated.
“For too long, American tax dollars have been subsidizing the horrific medical malpractice of ‘transitioning’ children to live as the opposite sex, despite the sterilization and mutilation that these practices often entail,” Schilling stated.
“Even as England today banned the use of ‘puberty blockers’ on kids, our country’s corrupted healthcare establishment continues to push this discredited and damaging [intervention], for both ideological and financial reasons,” he stated. “Enough is enough.”
The group is “grateful” for Speaker Mike Johnson’s work on including this provision.
“And we urge Republican leaders in both chambers to continue to prioritize this issue, both for the remainder of this Congress and especially in the next one,” he stated. “Voters this November gave the GOP a mandate to act — now they must follow through.”
The legislation prohibits TRICARE, a military insurance plan, from paying for the procedures for minors, according to The Hill. The news outlet reported the Senate plans to vote on the bill next week.
Several Democrats criticized the provisions of the bill, with Washington Congressman Adam Smith calling it “wrong” to “blatantly” deny harmful transgender interventions to children.
The bill also will not include funding to expand embryo-destructive in vitro fertilization (IVF) among U.S. military members, LifeSiteNews recently reported.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, praised the bill. He also pointed out the bill “guts” the “DEI bureaucracy” at the Pentagon.
“The good news keeps rolling on the National Defense Authorization Act,” Perkins wrote on X (formerly Twitter). He noted the bill also protects “our daughters from the draft.”
The good news keeps rolling on the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)!
In addition to protecting our daughters from the draft, minors from gender transition procedures, and unborn children from a ‘Wild West’ IVF expansion, the FY2025 NDAA:
-Guts DEI bureaucracy…— Tony Perkins (@tperkins) December 10, 2024
The Democratic Party’s losses in November have been partially attributed to its failure to condemn transgender ideology, including drugs and surgeries for gender-confused minors and allowing men to compete in girls’ sports and use their bathrooms and locker rooms.
The transgender movement has also experienced other setbacks, as last week the Supreme Court appeared skeptical of left-wing challenges to state laws prohibiting the drugs and surgeries for minors.
Medical experts, theologians, legal experts, and families harmed by transgender ideology all asked the Supreme Court through amicus briefs to uphold prohibitions on the procedures.
In addition to sex being immutable, numerous studies and personal testimonies demonstrate the harms of transgender drugs and surgeries, as extensively documented by LifeSiteNews.
The drugs and surgeries have been linked to suicidality, bone density loss, heart diseases, stroke, cancer, and numerous other medical problems. Puberty blockers can also cause infertility, as would be expected from drugs intended to stop the normal development of reproductive organs.