Yes, Comments Matter!
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Today’s news speaks to the doomsters yesterday who said that comments don’t matter.
The Trump administration is abandoning its most aggressive attempt to end gender-affirming care for youth nationally, according to an official document obtained by NPR.
The document shows that the Department of Health and Human Services will not be finalizing a proposed rule that would have blocked all Medicaid and Medicare funding for hospitals that provide pediatric gender-affirming care.
And why are they backing off?
Normally, HHS would propose a rule, accept public comment for 60 days, and then finalize the rule so that it could take effect. In this case, after proposing the rule in December and receiving more than 30,000 comments, the administration is abandoning the rule. At least in the next year, it will not be finalized and will not take effect.
Thirty thousand comments? Piffle! The OMB proposed regulation I asked you to comment on yesterday now has over a half-million comments! But 30,000 was enough to shut this one down.
This isn’t the end of the fight for equality for trans people. But it is one more victory against the Trump administration’s inhumane policies.
We must use all the ways open to us to push back. We will win.
Many thanks to the people who have commented on both of these proposals. Let’s keep it up. It’s one more tool in our arsenal.