Health Care — State lawmakers turn focus to care for trans adults

Have you gotten a glimpse of the green comet making its way near us yet? Some lucky stargazers may be able to witness the icy rock over the course of this month as it closes in on our solar system for the first time in more than 10,000 years. 

Today in health, we look at bills coming up in state legislatures with the potential to impact treatment access for transgender adults. 

Welcome to The Hill’s Health Care roundup, where we’re following the latest moves on policy and news affecting your health. We’re Nathaniel Weixel and Joseph Choi. Subscribe here.

Trans youth health care bans now aimed at adults

Lawmakers in at least three states this year have filed legislation meant to restrict access to gender-affirming health care for individuals as old as 26, an escalation of a battle waged nationwide last year over whether minors should be able to access certain prescription medications and procedures.

• Bills filed this year in Oklahoma, South Carolina and Virginia aim to bar state health care providers from recommending or administering treatments like puberty blockers, hormones and gender-affirming surgeries to patients younger than 21, signaling an aggravation in the fight over transgender health care. 
• Another Oklahoma bill filed this month would prohibit adults up to 25 from receiving gender-affirming care in one of the most extreme and restrictive bans introduced to date.  

The state’s proposed “Millstone Act,” which gets its name from a Bible verse about punishing adults who harm children, would also block Oklahoma’s Medicaid program from providing coverage for “gender transition procedures” to individuals younger than 26. 

“I don’t think it was ever about children,” Erin Reed, an independent legislative researcher, told The Hill this week, referring to state and federal attempts to ban gender-affirming care over the past two years. 

“These adult bans show that that’s not what it was about,” Reed said. “It’s about banning care entirely. It’s about forcing transgender people back in the closet.” 

Read more here. 

Pence: Candidates must stake out abortion positions

Former Vice President Mike Pence argued that his party must embrace an anti-abortion position that puts Democrats on defense in the aftermath of last summer’s Supreme Court ruling, a departure from former President Trump’s reading of the issue. 

“What I saw in the last election was that men and women who clearly articulated their position on the sanctity of life did quite well in their election,” Pence said in an exclusive interview with The Hill on Wednesday. 

“I think going forward, it’s going to be incumbent on the men and women of our party to stand without apology for the sanctity of human life, to stand on that principle of the unalienable right to life, but also to…