Nancy Pelosi backs child sex changes, works to secure it 'at the national level'

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared Thursday that she is working “at the national level” to preserve access to sex-change procedures for minors, even as more states move to ban the controversial practice. In a recent case, the Supreme Court upheld's states' rights to ban the practice of medical sex changes for minors.

Pelosi’s comments came during a visit to the San Francisco VA Medical Center, where she toured facility upgrades and claimed that Republicans in Congress might cut veterans’ services. When asked by reporters about recent pauses in “gender-affirming care” for minors in California, Pelosi made it clear she is committed to keeping such procedures available nationwide.

Some California hospitals shut down their gender clinics for minors following a White House executive order threatening their federal funding if they kept providing these services.

“That is something I’m working for at the national level," Pelosi said, "and we are hoping that we can have gender-affirming care for our trans kids. It’s a sad thing for us. I'm not totally—I don’t know what effect we can have nationally with what we have going on in the White House and in the Congress. It's really very sad.”

She added that she has a transgender-pride flag hanging outside her office, as do several other Democrats. Pelosi also acknowledged that many Republicans oppose allowing children to undergo medical gender transitions.

Her remarks follow a lawsuit filed earlier this month by officials from more than a dozen Democrat-led states, challenging the Trump administration’s effort to block sex-change surgeries and treatments for anyone under 19. The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts, accuses the administration of threatening providers with “baseless criminal charges” and investigations as those providers would be in violation of the order.

The complaint names President Donald Trump, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice and targets Trump’s Jan. 28 executive order ending federal support for sex-change operations. It also cites memos from Bondi and Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate directing the DOJ to investigate and prosecute doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies that perform such procedures on minors.

Pelosi’s office confirmed to Fox Newsthat she was referring to this lawsuit when voicing her support for “gender-affirming care” for children.

The Trump administration’s stance has already prompted major providers to scale back or end such services. In July, Kaiser Permanente announced it would pause sex-change surgeries for patients under 19 at the end of the month. Children’s Hospital Los Angeles closed its Center for Trans Youth Health and Development, and Children’s National Hospital in Washington, DC, said it would stop offering gender-transition surgeries for minors. 

Trump health officials are reportedly also considering a policy that would limit hospitals' ability to participate in Medicare and Medicaid if they perform sex altering procedures for minors.

While many states have passed laws restricting or banning the procedures for children, the states in the lawsuit, including California, New York, New Jersey, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Washington, DC, continue to allow them.