Signage outside the US Department of Justice (DOJ) headquarters in Washington, DC, US, on Friday, Feb. 17, 2023. (Ting Shen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department is proposing a new policy that would seek to limit the ability of state bar associations to launch ethics probes into DOJ attorneys, according to a new document posted Wednesday in the Federal Register.
The proposal, which comes amid growing scrutiny of the department’s attorneys and whether they’re complying with ethical obligations in enforcing the Trump administration’s agenda, would seek to empower Attorney General Pam Bondi to request that state bar investigations be suspended pending a DOJ review of any originating complaint.
In the event the state bar authorities “refuse” to suspend their investigations, the proposal says, the Justice Department “shall take appropriate action to prevent the bar disciplinary authorities from interfering.”
It’s not immediately clear what “appropriate action” the department could take to influence state-level proceedings, and the proposed rule does not elaborate further.
The proposal argues that the bar complaint and investigation process has been “weaponized” by political activists in recent years to ensnare officials across DOJ’s ranks into costly and time-consuming proceedings.
“This unprecedented weaponization of the State bar complaint process risks chilling the zealous advocacy by Department attorneys on behalf of the United States, its agencies, and its officers,” the proposed rule said. “That chilling effect, in turn, would interfere with the broad statutory authority of the Attorney General to manage and supervise Department attorneys.”
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
State Representative James Talarico, a Democrat from Texas and US Senate candidate, speaks during a Texas primary election night event at Emo’s Austin in Austin, Texas, US, early on Wednesday, March 4, 2026. (Photographer: Jordan Vonderhaar/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Primary voting began on Tuesday in Texas, Arkansas and North Carolina, marking the beginning of the 2026 midterm elections, which are expected to be seen in part as referenda on the first year of President Donald Trump’s second term.
Here are a few key takeaways from the early voting.
Texas GOP Senate primary heads for a runoff
The heated Republican Senate primary heads to a runoff between Sen. John Cornyn and Attorney General Ken Paxton, as neither secured over 50% of the vote Tuesday evening.
Rep. Wesley Hunt, who was also running in the race, conceded Tuesday evening and did not endorse Paxton or Cornyn.
With Trump not endorsing in the race, Paxton attempted to paint Cornyn as not aligned with the President and said that Cornyn “stabbed [Trump] in the back by trying to derail his presidential campaigns.”
“No one can name [one] accomplishment [of Cornyn’s],” Paxton said Tuesday night. “The people of Texas deserve better. That’s the message we’re taking into the runoff.”
Cornyn continued his attacks on Paxton Tuesday night, calling him a “shameless candidate” and saying there’s too much at stake in this year’s election for him to be elected to the Senate.
“I refuse to allow a flawed, self-centered and shameless candidate like Ken Paxton risk everything we’ve worked so hard to build over these many years, there is simply too much at stake in this midterm election for our state and for our country, the final two years of … President Trump’s agenda hangs in the balance,” Cornyn said.
Talarico defeats Crockett
On Tuesday morning, U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett conceded to State Rep. James Talarico, the 36-year-old Presbyterian seminarian and former teacher in the contested Texas Democratic Senate primary, giving hope to national Democrats about the possibility of flipping the state blue.
“This morning I called James and congratulated him on becoming the Senate nominee. Texas is primed to turn blue and we must remain united because this is bigger than any one person,” Crockett said in a statement. “This is about the future of all 30 million Texans and getting America back on track. With the primary behind us, Democrats must rally around our nominees and win. I’m committed to doing my part and will continue working to elect democrats up and down the ballot.”
Talarico will face off against whoever wins May’s runoff election in the state’s Senate GOP primary between Cornyn and Paxton — a race that Trump has still yet to endorse a candidate in and is expected to become uglier in the lead up to the runoff.
The last time a Democrat won a Senate race in Texas was in 1988.
Talarico told his supporters early Wednesday morning at his election party that he was confident in the movement they had built.
“Tonight, our campaign is shocking the nation. We are still waiting for an official call, but we are confident in this movement we’ve built together. Every vote must be counted, every voice must be heard,” Talarico said. “We are not we are not just trying to win an election. We are trying to fundamentally change our politics, and it’s working. “
The Trump factor
And in some down-ballot races, Trump’s endorsement continues to carry weight.
Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw became the first GOP incumbent to lose a primary this cycle when he was defeated by hardline conservative state Rep. Steve Toth, in a race that focused on which candidate aligned with Trump the most.
Trump did not endorse either candidate in the race, which left Crenshaw as the only House Republican in Texas running for re-election without the President’s support.
At multiple points during his time in Congress, Crenshaw found himself at odds with Trump, including over the President’s refusal to accept the 2020 election results.
In North Carolina, a Senate seat Democrats hope to flip, former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, and former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley each won their primaries handily and will face off in one of the most-watched Senate races this cycle.
Whatley, who was endorsed by Trump, embraced the President and said he would stand with him if elected to the U.S. Senate during his victory speech Tuesday night.
“I will stand with President Trump to finish the job, secure the border permanently and ensure that illegal aliens are swiftly deported,” Whatley said later on his victory remarks.
Pete Hegseth, US secretary of defense, during a news conference at the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, US, on Monday, March 2, 2026. Stefani Reynolds/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A U.S. submarine on Tuesday sank an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Wednesday, the first time since WWII the U.S. has sunk an enemy combatant ship by torpedo.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Texas State Troopers secure the area after dispersing a crowd protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the South Texas Family Residential Center on January 28, 2026 in Dilley, Texas. (Joel Angel Juarez/Getty Images)
(DILLEY, Texas) — Emergency calls that were placed in recent months from a South Texas family detention center and obtained by ABC News reveal a series of medical emergencies involving pregnant women and young children that advocates say underscore their concerns about the sprawling ICE facility.
The 911 audio calls from Frio County, dating from October 2025 through February 2026, document medical staff at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley requesting ambulances for migrant detainees experiencing seizures, fainting and respiratory distress.
In one call from January, a staff member requested assistance for a 17-month-old child.
“I’m calling for a little kid going through respiratory distress,” the caller told dispatchers.
In other calls, medical staff asked for ambulances for a 6-year-old boy with lethargy and a high fever, a 14-month-old in respiratory distress, and a 22-month-old with a fever and low oxygen levels.
“We need an ambulance,” one caller said. “We have a child with a high fever.”
Immigrant advocates, medical professionals and lawmakers have raised concerns in recent weeks about conditions at the South Texas facility.
ABC News recently interviewed a couple who said their 1-year-old daughter contracted COVID-19 and RSV during their 60-day detention. The family alleges medical staff at Dilley dismissed their daughter’s symptoms.
U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, who visited 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos while he was detained with his father at Dilley, also recently raised concerns about a 2-month-old infant before the child’s release. After Castro’s statements, detention center staffers made several calls to Frio County regarding the infant.
“Hi, I’m calling about a child that is at the detention center, a baby that is very sick, and I want to know if you guys can go do a child wellness check,” one caller said.
Last week, the Department of Homeland Security, which operates the nation’s migrant detention centers, disputed allegations made by detained families and advocates about Dilley. In a statement, DHS said that detainees have “ongoing access to on-site medical professionals, including physicians, pediatricians, nurses, and mental health care providers.”
“The truth is this facility provided proper medical care for all detainees including access to a pediatrician,” Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said. “The fact is being in detention is a choice. We encourage all parents to take control of their departure by using the CBP Home app and receiving a free flight home and $2,600.
The 911 records also detail emergencies involving pregnant detainees. One call reports a woman experiencing a seizure, while another describes a woman three months pregnant who had lost consciousness.
“She is non-responsive. They found her on the ground,” a staff member told the dispatcher.
“We have a middle-aged woman pregnant and she’s seizing,” a medical staffer said in another call.
As of last month, there were about 1,400 people being held at Dilley, including children and parents, according to RAICES, an immigrant legal advocacy group. The facility was closed during the Biden administration and reopened last year as the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement measures increased.
Dr. Anita Patel, a board-certified pediatrician who recently sent a letter to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem calling for the release of all children at Dilley, said detained families “are not receiving the standard of care.”
“What is clearly evident is they have no ability to recognize potentially lethal or emergent situations, and they have no clinical acumen to say when something is a medical emergency,” Dr. Patel said of the calls.
“What I am hearing from families and what we are witnessing is a human rights catastrophe,” she told ABC News. “They don’t have access to medical care, they don’t have access to appropriate nutrition; all of these standard humanitarian policies stated by the U.N. all the way down to laws are not being followed.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News regarding the 911 calls.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a news conference on the Epstein Files on Capitol Hill February 26, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate will vote Wednesday on a Democratic-led Iran war powers resolution, according to a press release from Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and bill co-sponsors Sens. Tim Kaine and Adam Schiff.
The resolution would direct the removal of United States armed forces from hostilities within or against Iran that have not been authorized by Congress. It comes after recent U.S. strikes on Iran that killed several Iranian leaders, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran.
There is no timeline in the bill, so if it passed and President Donald Trump signed it, the U.S. would have to draw down troops.
Because this bill is privileged, it would only need 51 votes to advance and ultimately be approved by the Senate. It’s not yet clear whether the legislation will have that support, but at this time it seems unlikely to advance.
Earlier this year, a similar resolution concerning military action in Venezuela passed an initial procedural test vote when a small handful of Republican senators voted with Democrats to move it forward. Some of those Republicans were ultimately swayed to revoke their support for that legislation during a vote on final passage, and the bill was ultimately defeated by Vice President JD Vance’s tie-breaking vote.
This time around though, Republicans seem even more inclined to support Trump’s actions in Iran.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, of Missouri, was one of the Republicans who initially supported the Venezuela war powers resolution before ultimately voting against it during a vote of final passage. His switch in position during that vote in January came after Trump attacked Hawley and the other Republicans who initially supported the proposal in a post on social media.
Hawley told ABC News on Tuesday that he would vote against the Iran war powers resolution.
The legislation cites the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which states that in the absence of a declaration of war but when armed forces are introduced, the president must report to Congress within 48 hours the circumstances necessitating their introduction and must terminate the use of U.S. armed forces within 60 days unless Congress permits otherwise. If approval is not granted and the president deems it an emergency, then an additional 30 days are granted for ending operations.
“I think they’re in compliance with the statute. The statute gives them 60 days, gives the administration 60 days to conduct activity without having to come back to … Congress for authorization, unless they’re ground troops. My view has always been, ground troops will require congressional authorization. So they’re currently none involved, none have been involved, and they’re following the War Powers Act,” Hawley said.
Still, Democrats say the vote is critical. Sen. Kaine, of Virginia, who is leading the Iran resolution and who has been an outspoken proponent of Congress’ role in declaring war, said the vote will show where everyone stands on the conflict.
“We’re going to put everybody on the record [Wednesday]. Nobody gets to hide and give the president an easy pass or an end run around the Constitution,” Kaine said on Tuesday. “Everybody’s got to declare whether they’re for this war or against it.”
Without the support of at least a few Republicans, the Iran resolution is likely to fail to advance during Wednesday’s vote.
Even if this legislation were to pass, it would still require approval in the House and the signature of the president to become law. It is highly unlikely Trump would sign the bill should it make it to his desk.
In this U.S. Navy released handout, Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Frank E. Petersen Jr. (DDG 121) fires a Tomahawk Land Attack Missile during operations in support of Operation Epic Fury, on February 28, 2026 at Sea. (Photo by U.S. Navy via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — While President Donald Trump says Operation Epic Fury could last several weeks, a question some are raising is how long U.S. and allies’ missile defense stockpiles can last in an extended conflict with Iran.
Trump has insisted that the U.S. is well equipped to fight, with a “virtually unlimited supply,” and other Gulf states have pushed back on claims that they are running missiles.
How much of the U.S. interceptor stockpile is being used up to defend against Iran’s continued heavy missile and drone attacks is classified, but it’s expected to be among questions lawmakers have for top Trump administration officials this week when they brief lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
Some experts are also raising concerns about America’s cache of the expensive air defense missiles as the Iranian military continues to target U.S. assets and other allies in retaliation.
Kelly Grieco, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center think tank and former assistant professor at the Air Command and Staff College, told ABC News that the conflict is becoming a “war of attrition.”
Watch special coverage on Nightline, “War with Iran,” each night on ABC and streaming on Disney+ and Hulu.
The U.S. and Israeli militaries are now in a race to destroy Iran’s missile capabilities, including launchers and production facilities, before the U.S. and Israel’s own stockpile of air defense interceptor missiles in the region is depleted, according to Grieco.
“The question is becoming who runs out of missiles first. Does the defender run out of interceptors,” she asked, referring to the armies of the U.S., Israel and the Gulf states. “Or does Iran run out of missiles, or their ability to launch missiles?”
“If the Iranians are able to launch with the kinds of numbers they have been launching over the past 48 hours over the next four to five weeks, that does not seem sustainable from an interceptor perspective,” she added.
“But if those numbers drop off because the U.S. and Israel destroy the launchers themselves, or their storage facilities, and the numbers drop dramatically, then we could potentially sustain this campaign,” Greico said.
Retired Lt. Gen. Dan Karbler, former commander of the U.S. Space and Missile Defense Command, told ABC News Live Tuesday that extensive drone use by the Iranian military has prompted the use of smaller short-range missiles as interceptors.
“We don’t want to shoot Patriot missiles at the drones,” he said. “So, some of our short-range air defense, more capability of that type of nature needs to flow into countries so we’re using our short-range missiles to take out these drones not our very limited patriot missiles.”
President Trump attempted to assuage concerns about the stockpile Tuesday — but also acknowledged the number of some of the highest-grade munitions is “not where we want it to be.”
“The United States Munitions Stockpiles have, at the medium and upper medium grade, never been higher or better — As was stated to me today, we have a virtually unlimited supply of these weapons,” Trump wrote on social media early Tuesday morning.
And even as he says the U.S. will “easily prevail” in this war and that the U.S. is prepared for the operation to go on for “whatever it takes,” Trump wrote that “Wars can be fought “forever,” and very successfully, using just these supplies.”
The U.S. was already concerned about its stockpile before this war as the Russian-Ukraine conflict, the Israeli-Gaza conflict and last summer’s conflict with Iran have dramatically increased demand for Patriot and THAAD missiles, according to Greico.
Terminal High Altitude Area Defense missiles that are used to defend against Iran’s most powerful ballistic missiles are in particularly short supply. Grieco estimated that if the U.S. uses its THAAD missiles at same rate as the 12-day conflict with Iran last year, it likely only has enough for about two weeks now at most.
Grieco said it will take a long time, and be costly, for the U.S. and other countries to replenish their antimissile stockpiles, which are more time consuming and expensive to produce than the Iranian weapons they defend against.
Iran has not launched missiles at the same scale so far compared to the attacks during conflict with Israel last year.
Israeli officials and independent experts said they believe that may reflect a strategy by Iran to run down air defense supplies with relatively smaller but steady attacks over a longer period.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) speaks during a Get Out The Vote campaign rally at the Schertz Civic Center Conference Hall on March 02, 2026 in Schertz, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — ABC News projects Texas Sen. John Cornyn will face a runoff against state Attorney General Ken Paxton in the Replican Senate primary in Texas. The Associated Press has projected that Texas state Rep. James Talarico will win the Democratic Senate primary.
The Senate primaries are among those in the state that have national implications and will shed insight into American attitudes one year into President Donald Trump’s second term.
Trump has made it clear that he is keeping a close eye on the state, announcing endorsements in select House races but staying on the sidelines for the Senate race.
In a House race that Trump didn’t make an endorsement in, state Rep. Steve Toth will defeat incumbent four-term Rep. Dan Crenshaw, The Associated Press projects.
State significance
The race between Cornyn, who is seeking his fifth term in the Senate, and Paxton is the “most expensive Senate primary on record,” according to tracking firm AdImpact, with over $122 million dedicated to ad spending and reservations.
On the Democratic side, Talarico defeated Rep. Jasmine Crockett, according to the Associated Press, in a battle between two rising stars in the Democratic Party who both hope to flip the seat for the first time in decades.
This election also marks the moment in which redistricting will begin to play out. Following Trump’s encouragement last summer, Texas spearheaded the redistricting wars — triggering a Supreme Court case, sparking national debate over mid-decade gerrymandering, and prompting other states to follow suit.
Now, newly drawn maps are likely to deliver five GOP pickups for the House of Representatives, where Republicans currently hold a razor-thin majority.
While Texas’ 23rd Congressional District is expected to stay red, the showdown between Trump-endorsed incumbent Rep. Tony Gonzales and Brandon Herrera will be one to watch, especially after multiple Republicans have called upon Gonzales to resign following an alleged relationship with his former staffer who died by suicide.
In the gubernatorial race, ABC News projects Trump-endorsed Gov. Greg Abbott, who is running for his fourth term in a state where governors do not have term limits, will face state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, the Democratic candidate.
Meanwhile, retired MLB baseball star Mark Teixeira is projected to win the Republican primary for Texas’s 21st congressional district, the Associated Press projects.
(NEW YORK) — Maternal mortality rates in the United States have dropped to their lowest levels in recent years, according to new data published on Thursday.
The report, from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics, compared maternal deaths in 2023 and 2024, with maternal deaths defined as the death of a woman during pregnancy or within 42 days of pregnancy termination.
In 2024, 649 women died of maternal causes in the U.S., with a rate of 17.9 deaths per 100,000 births, according to the report.
By comparison, 669 women died in 2023 with a rate of 18.6 deaths per 100,000 births, the report found.
This is also the lowest rate seen since 2018, which had a maternal mortality rate of 17.4 deaths per 100,000 live births.
Data showed significant racial/ethnic disparities. Black women had the highest mortality rate at 44.8 deaths per 100,000 live births.
This was three times higher than the mortality rate for white women of 14.2 deaths per 100,000 live births. Hispanic and Asian women also had lower rates of 12.1 deaths per 100,000 and 18.1 deaths per 100,000, respectively.
Research has shown that Black women are more likely to have pre-existing cardiovascular disease and are more likely to experience adverse pregnancy outcomes, both of which increase the risk of maternal mortality.
Between 2023 and 2024, rates for Black, white and Hispanic women declined while the rate for Asian women rose, but neither the decreases nor the increase was “significant,” according to the report.
There were also disparities by age. Women aged 40 and older had the highest maternal mortality rate of 62.3 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2024.
This was 4.5 times higher than the mortality rate for women younger than age 25, which sat at 13.7 per 100,000 and 3.7 times higher than the rate for women between ages 25 and 39, sitting at 16.5 per 100,000. The report describes the differences in the women aged 40 and older group with the younger groups as “significant.”
More than 80% of pregnancy-related deaths are preventable, according to the CDC. The report did not examine why the maternal mortality rate declined, but the CDC has taken steps to support efforts to prevent pregnancy-related deaths.
Among these are Hear Her, which is a national campaign that shares messages about signs and symptoms during and after pregnancy that warrant seeking urgent medical care.
Additionally, the CDC conducts national surveillance through the Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System, which is used to better understand the risk factors for and causes of pregnancy-related deaths in the U.S.
Howard Lutnick, commerce secretary during a news conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, Feb. 20, 2026. (Annabelle Gordon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has “agreed to appear voluntarily” before the House Oversight Committee as part of its investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Committee Chairman James Comer announced Tuesday.
“I commend his demonstrated commitment to transparency and appreciate his willingness to engage with the Committee. I look forward to his testimony,” Comer said in a post on X.
Comer did not specify when the secretary’s appearance will occur.
Lutnick, who lived next door to Epstein for over a decade, previously suggested he had distanced himself from Epstein back in the mid-2000s prior to Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
“So, I was never in the room with him socially, for business or even philanthropy. If that guy was there, I wasn’t going because he’s gross,” Lutnick said on the “Pod Force One” podcast in October.
The commerce secretary was grilled on Capitol Hill during an appearance last month before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee about his past denial following revelations that the two men remained in contact years after Lutnick suggested he had distanced himself from the convicted sex offender.
In his appearance before the appropriations subcommittee, Lutnick was asked repeatedly about his correspondence with Epstein, detailed in files recently released by the Justice Department, in which it was revealed that he visited Epstein’s Caribbean island in 2012 with his family and others.
Lutnick has denied any wrongdoing.
Tuesday’s announcement from Comer came a day after the House Oversight Committee released video of the appearances of former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton before the committee last week.
ABC News’ Fritz Farrow contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump, joined by first lady Melania Trump, signs the Fostering the Future executive order in the East Room of the White House, Nov. 13, 2025. (Heather Diehl/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is urging states to stop removing children from their homes over gender-identity disputes at the behest of child welfare agencies without their parents’ approval.
In a letter first obtained by ABC News, the Health and Human Services Department’s Administration for Children and Families (ACF) reminds state child welfare agencies that under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA), they are barred from removing children from their home because a parent doesn’t agree with the child’s gender identity.
“When states overstep their bounds, ACF will take action to deter inappropriate policies that drive unnecessary interactions with child welfare systems. This is one such example,” ACF Assistant Secretary Alex Adams wrote in a statement Tuesday.
The Trump administration cited multiple examples — from Illinois to California — where children who may reject the sex they were assigned at birth and perceive themselves as a different gender were removed from their homes without parental consent and placed in the child welfare system.
However, Shannon Minter, vice president of legal at the National Center for LGBTQ Rights (NCLR), told ABC News that he is not aware of any state removing children from parents based on their response to a transgender child.
Transgender is an umbrella term for people whose gender identity and/or expression is different from cultural expectations based on the sex they were assigned at birth, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
Minter called the effort a broader push by the Trump administration to “eliminate” all protections for transgender young people.
“No one is advocating for removing children because a parent is struggling to understand,” he said, adding, “But child welfare professionals need the discretion to assess when rejection crosses the line into real harm — the same way they would for any other child.”
Morissa Ladinsky, a clinical professor in pediatrics at Stanford University in California, argued that children aren’t typically removed from their home without parental consent in this fashion.
“My experience tells me that there is likely more to the story,” Ladinsky told ABC News, adding that she has not seen removal over gender disputes fall under the domain of Child Protective Services.
As the division of HHS that promotes welfare assistance and supports the economic and social well-being of children and families, the agency has said ACF’s duty is to protect families and keep them together. ACF’s letter also stressed that parents hold the right to refuse removal according to their religious beliefs and moral convictions around gender identity.
The letter said breaking the law could violate the First Amendment and states could risk losing federal grant funding under CAPTA.
“What we’re doing with this letter is we’re putting states on notice,” Adams told ABC News.
“When policies are either increasing the number of kids committed to the system inappropriately or they’re deterring foster families from stepping up, I do think there was a role for ACF to weigh in,” he said, adding, “It does merit federal action.”
The letter to states bolsters an initiative to protect children from the foster-care system amid a shortage of facilities nationwide with only 57 foster homes for every 100 vulnerable kids coming into the system, according to Adams.
The letter comes at the directive of President Donald Trump’s Fostering the Future for American Children and Families executive order and follows the president’s call during his State of the Union address last week for a federal ban on gender transitions for minors.
“Surely, we can all agree no state can be allowed to rip children from their parents’ arms and transition them to a new gender against the parents’ will,” Trump said during his address. “We must ban it and we must ban it immediately.”
Gender identity is described as how a child perceives and calls themself, which can be the same or different from the sex that was assigned to them at birth, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
However, if a child sees themself as different than the sex assigned at birth, parents have the right to reject this self-identification, the ACF letter says. Under federal law, CAPTA states that a child may not be removed from the home without proof of “abuse” or “imminent risk of harm.”
The Trump administration has stated that restoring power to parents is one of its top health, education and humanities priorities. But the letter warns that states are usurping parental rights and potentially misinterpreting the CAPTA law if they remove children from their homes without evidence of “abuse or neglect.”
Under ACF, the health department’s human services division administers the largest federal child care program and other federal services that helps millions of households nationwide.
Prior to ACF’s letter to states, lawmakers have taken several child care-related actions against the nation’s health agency under Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. In a previous letter to Kennedy first reported by ABC News, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and other congressional Democrats said the agency’s alleged “disregard” for child welfare undermines the government’s core child-protection obligations amid federal immigration crackdowns.
Adams stressed Tuesday’s letter is supported by the whole organization, including Kennedy, and the secretary has demonstrated his commitment to improving child welfare outcomes across several different domains.
