Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin<\/p>\n
Taxpayers will now foot the bill for gender reassignment surgery for active military personnel and veterans, with some treatments costing upward of $200,000 under an executive order signed by President Biden.<\/p>\n
Tucked inside Biden\u2019s Jan. 25 transgender order<\/a>, \u201cEnabling All Qualified Americans to Serve Their Country in Uniform,\u201d is a clause that repeals an Obama-era policy<\/a> that prohibited federally funded reassignment surgery. This was followed up by memos from both Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin<\/a> and Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough<\/a> specifically stating that surgery is now an added benefit.<\/p>\n \u201cThis revised policy will also ensure all medically-necessary transition related care authorized by law is available to all Service members,\u201d Austin wrote.<\/p>\n In a VA email to employees, McDonough echoed: \u201cPerform an assessment of the necessary steps to eliminate the exclusion of \u2018gender alteration\u2019 (gender affirmation surgery) in the medical benefits package.\u201d<\/p>\n Neither official stated how much the added benefit would cost but rather pledged to undertake an analysis.<\/p>\n Online charts by the Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery show a plethora of elective surgeries for both men<\/a> and women<\/a> that add up to $100,000-$200,000. Although Biden stated in his order that the cost of treating transgender troops would have minimal impact on healthcare costs, that is not borne out by a 2019 USA Today<\/em> investigation<\/a>. The news analysis revealed that the Pentagon spent $8 million to treat just 1,500 transgender military officials, which included hormone treatments and some surgeries. It was not clear why the surgeries were allowed at that time.<\/p>\n A federal study<\/a> revealed that more than 15,000 service members and 134,000 veterans <\/a>identify as transgender.<\/p>\n Rep. Jim Banks, an Indiana Republican, is an Afghanistan veteran and sits on the House Committee on Veterans\u2019 Affairs. He supports transgender individuals serving in the military and said he served with people with diverse backgrounds. But he disputes that the public should pay for surgical intervention.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is radical and new territory for a presidential administration to force taxpayers to fund sexual reassignment surgeries for those in the military,\u201d he told the Washington Examiner<\/em>. \u201cI\u2019m compassionate toward those individuals who want to undergo an elective surgery of this nature, but taxpayers shouldn\u2019t be on the hook to pay for it. It\u2019s constitutionally dubious that Congress hasn\u2019t passed these measures, but the administration, in a radical way, is pushing through this agenda. I sit on the committee that should debate these issues.\u201d<\/p>\n The order also violates the religious liberties of Catholics and Christians who oppose such a procedure, Banks said.<\/p>\n