WASHINGTON—There is a Republican push for President Donald Trump’s administration to put an end to tax code provisions that make it more cost-effective for Americans to obtain transgender medical procedures and surgeries, The Daily Wire has learned.
The IRS currently designates so-called gender procedures as a “qualifying medical expense,” meaning patients can pay for these procedures with tax-advantaged Health Savings Accounts and subsidized Affordable Care Act insurance plans. In a letter first obtained by The Daily Wire, Missouri congressman Bob Onder is asking Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to take a look at changing what qualifies.
“Hardworking American taxpayers across the country are unknowingly made complicit in underwriting these costly, dangerous, and deadly medical procedures,” Onder writes, urging Bessent to “remove sex-trait altering drug regimens, procedures, and related providers from tax-advantaged qualified medical expenses.”
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“The tacit tolerance of a radical movement that has subjected thousands of American children to baseless medical treatments with grave consequences should be of serious concern to all of us,” Onder said. “We must ensure that this misguided acceptance does not result in Americans unknowingly and indirectly subsidizing the cost of these procedures.”
Bessent, who serves as acting commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service, is able to define which procedures as qualified medical expenses, the letter notes. Gender-affirming care is now broadly considered a qualified expense, meaning patients can pay for everything from chest binders and hormone therapy to surgeries using tax-advantaged HSA and FSA accounts, or taxpayer-subsidized Obamacare insurance plans.
The push to change this comes as the Trump administration redoubles its efforts to combat radical gender ideology in the wake of a string of deadly attacks perpetrated by transgender-identifying assailants. Last week, the president told The Daily Wire that his administration is “very strongly” examining the pattern of transgender violence, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt similarly told The Daily Wire that transgender violence is “definitely something worth looking into.”
“Anyone who denies that at this point is being willfully ignorant,” Leavitt said.
In his letter, Onder lays out five major mass shootings that have been “conducted by transgender individuals with proven political motivations” since 2018.
That would include Robin Westman, a trans-identifying 23-year-old man who opened fire last month on Catholic schoolchildren while they were praying in Minneapolis. It also follows the assassination of Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, whose accused killer, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, was living with a 22-year-old trans-identifying male named Lance Twiggs.
“As Congress and the Trump Administration consider advancing policy proposals aimed at addressing the underlying conditions that led to Mr. Kirk’s assassination, it would be a grave mistake not to acknowledge the role transgender ideology has played in inflicting harm on our nation’s children,” Onder wrote.
Onder further notes that advocates of transgender procedures are taking advantage of vulnerable young people, coaxing them into experimental medical procedures that often cause irreparable harm, and indoctrinating them into a radical ideology.
Citing a May report from the Department of Health and Human Services that found there is “minimal evidence to support the benefits of sex-trait altering procedures,” Onder argues that these procedures often lead to “severe health consequences” that “have sparked equally devastating societal consequences.”
“We are witnessing a disturbing rise in left-wing political violence with increasing rates of mental illness and political radicalization, which is incredibly concerning and warrants concerted examination,” he tells Bessent. “These ‘activists’ are systematically exploiting the confusion of these vulnerable individuals, weaponizing their distress to target anyone they perceive as a political or ideological opponent.”
Onder is a member of the Republican Study Committee, the largest conservative caucus in Congress, which has led the charge against both transgender ideology and political violence. In 2022, then-RSC Chairman Jim Banks introduced legislation that would protect minors from transgender procedures. The RSC — which counts among its members prominent lawmakers, including Reps. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), Steve Scalise (R-LA), and Kat Cammack (R-FL) — has seen its efforts to fight gender ideology pay off under President Donald Trump.
Shortly after taking office in January, Trump signed an executive order declaring “federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology.” The Trump Justice Department is considering a ban on firearm purchases for individuals who identify as transgender, as The Daily Wire previously reported. And in June, the Supreme Court upheld Tennessee’s ban on transgender procedures for minors, a decision RSC Chairman August Pfulger (R-Texas) hailed as “a huge win for parental rights and defeating the woke ideology of the Left.”
Other RSC members are expected to sign on to Onder’s letter in the coming days, sources with knowledge of the matter tell The Daily Wire.
“Children are the most vulnerable members of our country, and they deserve leaders who will protect them,” Onder writes. “This action alone will make a marked impact on the well-being of children nationwide, and will end this country’s moral retreat into the acceptance of a radical ideology that defies biological reality and puts our citizens at risk.”
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