(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence appeared Thursday before a grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump’s role and efforts to overturn the 2020 election, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Pence was inside the courthouse in Washington for more than seven hours and his vehicle was later seen leaving by ABC News.
A spokesperson for special counsel Jack Smith declined to comment.
He was initially subpoenaed by Smith in February for documents and testimony related to the failed attempt by Trump and his allies to overturn the 2020 election. The subpoena came after months of negotiations between federal prosecutors and Pence’s legal team.
Trump unsuccessfully sought to stop Pence’s testimony, including by asserting a claim of executive privilege that was rejected late last month by the chief judge for the D.C. district court, James Boasberg.
Boasberg ordered Pence to testify before the grand jury and to provide records to Smith and, according to sources, Boasberg ruled that Pence should have to provide answers to Smith on any questions that implicate any illegal acts on Trump’s part.
The judge, however, did narrowly uphold parts of a separate legal challenge brought by Pence himself, who argued he should be shielded from having to testify on certain aspects related to his role as president of the Senate overseeing the certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.
A federal appeals panel on Wednesday rejected a further effort from Trump’s legal team to prevent Pence from testifying.
Pence said earlier this month that he would not appeal the D.C. district court ruling and would comply with the grand jury subpoena.
(WASHINGTON) — Flanked by two pint-sized “Secret Service agents,” President Joe Biden took to the South Lawn on Thursday afternoon to greet kids at the White House for “Take Your Child to Work Day” and answered various questions from children of the press and White House staff.
Kid “reporters” inquired about his favorite color and ice cream, what he had for breakfast (bacon, egg and cheese on a croissant) and his accomplishments during his administration, to name a few.
At one point, though, the president seemed to have some trouble answering what was the last country he visited — which was his beloved Ireland less than two weeks ago.
“I’m trying to think where the last place I was. It’s hard to keep track,” he said, noting he’s met with 89 heads of state so far.
A child shouted, “Ireland!” to remind him, to which Biden replied, “Yeah, you’re right, Ireland.”
Still, Biden appeared to enjoy the event, walking across the crowd to take questions from all sides.
Asked what it’s like being president, Biden said, “It’s probably the greatest honor anyone in America can have bestowed on them,” and said the best parts of the job are meeting different people and living in the White House.
About his favorite ice cream, Biden said he “may be among the dullest presidents of the world because I’m known for two things: My Ray-Ban sunglasses and chocolate chip ice cream.”
Asked who were his biggest inspirations, Biden said politically it was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but for personal inspiration, his parents.
He said his favorite movie of the year was “Top Gun: Maverick.”
Biden wasn’t the only one at the White House facing questions from a flurry of kids.
Press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre held a briefing for children of the White House press corps earlier in the day, where she took questions on a wide range of topics from artificial intelligence and climate change to some of Biden’s favorite things.
Matthew Anderson, son of ABC News White House Correspondent Karen Travers, asked Jean-Pierre what the U.S. is doing to support Ukraine in its war with Russia.
“For the past year, we have been one of the leading countries, the US, in sending Ukraine security assistance, whether it’s ammunition, whatever is needed for them to fight this war that they’re dealing with in Ukraine…Also economic assistance and humanitarian assistance,” she said. “What we’re seeing in Ukraine are the Ukrainian people really fighting very bravely. And so we are incredibly proud of them.”
Following up, Anderson pushed Jean-Pierre on how long Biden wants to continue supporting Ukraine like this.
“As long as it takes. But we don’t know, we don’t have a time on when the war is going to end. We always say the war can end today, easily, if Russia decides to move on out and stop the war that they started, this aggression that they started,” she said. “Seriously, Russia can end this today.”
Later on the South Lawn, Biden thanked all the children for skipping school to make the trip, offering a special thanks to the mini-Secret Service agents for leading him outside.
“Take Our Kids to Work Day” is sponsored by the Take Our Daughters And Sons to Work Foundation. This year marks the 30th anniversary of the annual event, held on the fourth Thursday in April, intended to encourage learning and help children explore what is possible in their futures.
(WASHINGTON) — The Chinese cyber threat is “unparalleled” by any other national security challenge seen by the U.S. government, according to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
China, seemingly gearing up to invade Taiwan within years or even months, poses the most significant threat to the United States more broadly, Wray said during Thursday testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee.
“They’ve got a bigger hacking program than every other major nation,” Wray said.
“There’s no country that presents a more significant threat to our innovation, our ideas, our economic security, our national security than Chinese government. And that’s why we’ve grown the number of investigations into threats from China about 1300%,” he added.
The Chinese government has taken steps to intimidate expatriates who speak out against the country’s domestic crackdowns on civil liberties and aggressive international posture. Last week, the FBI arrested two men for operating an illegal Chinese police station in New York, which DOJ says was set up to harass dissidents in the United States.
“It’s frankly outrageous,” he said. “The Chinese government would think that they could set up shop here on our soil, and conduct uncoordinated unsanctioned illegal law enforcement operations, and unfortunately, it fits in with a pattern of the Chinese government trying to basically run willy-nilly disregard for the rule of law and threaten, harass, stalk surveil dissidents.”
China has been ramping up its technological abilities in recent months, a national push memorably encapsulated by a Chinese spy balloon traversing U.S. soil in February.
But China, the director said, is just the tip of the cyber iceberg.
“China is not the only challenge in cyberspace. Not even close,” he said, noting the department is investigating over 100 different ransomware variants.
“So, in addition to China countries like Russia, Iran, and North Korea, and it is getting more and more challenging to discern where the nation state threat ends, and the cybercriminal threat again,” he continued.
Wray said the “unbelievably dangerous” nature of the dark web could imperil individuals via coordinated criminal activity such as drug trafficking.
“[It’s] everything from certainly things like fentanyl, as we already talked about, but also all the way over to stolen credentials to log into somebody’s network, or you can hire a hitman,” he said. “I mean we’ve even had WMD type products, if you will, being marketed on the dark net. So, it really is a kind of soup-to-nuts, a place of just unbelievably dangerous criminal activity.”
The director said the FBI is focused on combatting the “threat” of gangs and cartels moving fentanyl through the U.S. and said the FBI is investigating some of the top brass of the cartels in Mexico.
“We’re now pursuing investigations against transnational organized criminal groups in all 56 FBI field offices and have more than 300, close to 400, now active investigations into cartel leadership,” he said.
Wray, who called on Mexico to “help us with this problem,” also touched on migration, saying he anticipates that the FBI’s DNA collections will increase by at least 30,000 with the lifting of pandemic-era Title 42 expedited processing of migrants. For some populations who are arrested along the U.S.-Mexico border, the FBI collects DNA and is required to do so by law for some who are arrested.
When Wray was asked about the politicization of the FBI, just one day after the House narrowly passed a 22% reduction in funding for the bureau, he emphasized that there are no political appointees, except for himself, in the FBI.
“I’ve put in place all kinds of new policies, procedures, training, systems, enhancements, all to reinforce that sort of top line message,” he said. “We’re going to follow the facts wherever they lead, no matter who likes it.”
Wray said that a decrease in funding for the FBI would mean more violent criminals on the street and “hundreds more predators on the loose and hundreds more kids left at their mercy.”
(WASHINGTON) — With “love and thanks,” Rep. Jamie Raskin announced Thursday that he was now in remission from cancer four months after first sharing his diagnosis.
A scan showed Raskin was “negative” for discernible cancer cells and had received a preliminary diagnosis of being in remission, “with a 90% prognosis of no relapse,” he said in an open letter.
“I am overwhelmed with gratitude and love,” he said, going on to thank “my family, my friends, my constituents and my colleagues” and “the many thousands of people—both Marylanders and those of you living much further away—who have reached out to me over the last five months with expressions of prayer, best wishes, concern, solidarity, sympathy and moral encouragement.”
“Not to mention beautiful gifts of bandanas, homemade scarves and sweaters, Capitol Police baseball caps, hospital scrubs, wool hats, chocolate chip cookies, mandel bread, pea soup, vegan matzoh ball soup, and gorgeous paintings, poems and letters that I will treasure forever,” he continued.
On Twitter, he shared video from Tuesday when he “rang the bell” to mark the end of his cancer treatment and thanked medical staff at Med Star Georgetown University Hospital, “who serve with splendid kindness—and saved my life.”
The Maryland Democrat said in December that he had been diagnosed with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and would be undergoing chemotherapy while continuing to work on Capitol Hill, where he began to wear distinctive bandanas — a reflection of his hair loss from treatment and a nod to musician Steven Van Zandt.
“I give all honor to Little Steven for creating this look for American men going through something,” he told HuffPost in late January. (Van Zandt subsequently gifted him a bandana, wishing him a “rapid recovery.”)
Raskin, a lawyer and former state lawmaker first elected to the House in 2016, saw his profile rise after serving as a manager in former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment. Raskin went on to serve on the House panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. He previously survived colon cancer.
While undergoing treatment, Raskin received support from colleagues on both sides of the aisle. “We’re all rooting for you,” Oversight Committee Chair James Comer told him during a meeting in January.
In his Thursday open letter, Raskin said his heart was full — and his body was tired.
“I have many things that I want to say to the people across America who have stood by me and helped carry me through this prolonged challenge, and I will come to say them soon,” he said. “Right now my hemoglobin and white blood cell counts are plunging from my final five-day round of chemotherapy, and I am afraid I lack the energy to properly thank you all and express the enormity of my feelings about the enduring beauty and promise of our country.”
“In the meantime,” he said, “I just want to send you my profound appreciation.”
(WASHINGTON) — Washington was still buzzing Thursday about how, during Wednesday’s White House State Dinner featuring performances by a trio Broadway stars, the guest of honor — South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol — instead stole the show with his rendition of Don McClean’s “American Pie.”
After Yoon revealed that the American karaoke bar classic was his favorite song in school, President Joe Biden coaxed him into delivering a performance.
“Well, we want to hear you sing it,” Biden said to Yoon, who obliged.
Despite speaking through an interpreter during the entire day of public events, Yoon had no trouble with the English lyrics as he burst into song, belting out several lines from the iconic tune then receiving boisterous cheers and a standing ovation from guests including Angelina Jolie.
Unexpected moment at the state dinner when the president of South Korea sings “American Pie.” pic.twitter.com/Dus6BiBU9E
“The next state dinner we’re going to have,” Biden, who energetically pumped his fists during the performance, said, putting his arm around Yoon, “you’re looking at the entertainment.”
Biden added, “I had no damn idea you could sing.” But he, evidently, did have an idea — at least of Yoon’s love for the song.
Following the performance, he told Yoon: “I understand that you like the guitar as well,” then gifted him an autographed acoustic guitar from Don McLean himself.
The entertainment portion of the event also showcased performances by singers Lea Salonga, Norm Lewis, and Jessica Voski performed a medley of five classic Broadway hits — “This Is The Moment,” “Happy Days Are Here Again,” “On My Own,” “Don’t Rain On My Parade,” and “Somewhere.”
The dinner followed Biden and Yoon’s bilateral meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday, during which the pair discussed working together to deter North Korea’s nuclear threats, promote peace in the Taiwan straits, stand with Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion and more.
Yoon’s state visit this week also marks the 70th anniversary of the U.S. and South Korea’s alliance, forged in the aftermath of the Korean War.
The light-hearted moment and other festivities at the State Dinner took place against the backdrop of diplomatic and economic tensions between the countries.
A recent leak of classified U.S. intelligence documents seemingly showed Washington was spying on South Korea’s leadership. Yoon downplayed the spying suggestion during Wednesday’s press conference, stating the two nations are in communication and are “sharing necessary information” as the U.S. investigation into documents’ disclosure plays out.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol will address a joint meeting of Congress Thursday as he continues a weeklong state visit to Washington.
Yoon’s trip comes as the U.S. and South Korea mark the 70th anniversary of their alliance, forged in the aftermath of the Korean War, as they now face North Korean aggression and Chinese expansion in the Indo-Pacific region.
“This is really a very impressive moment for the relationship,” said Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korea studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “The U.S. and South Korea have evolved to be working on so many different issue areas, and the scope of the relationship has broadened out beyond the peninsula to become more regional and global.”
Yoon, a conservative elected in 2022, has repeatedly emphasized global freedom since taking office. Snyder said that theme could emerge again in his address to U.S. lawmakers.
President Joe Biden and Yoon held a bilateral meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday, during which they discussed working together to deter North Korea’s nuclear threats, promote peace in the Taiwan straits, stand with Ukraine amid Russia’s invasion and more.
Appearing side-by-side after at a joint press conference, both leaders hailed the importance and strength of the alliance.
“Our relationship has been a great success story,” Biden said. “An alliance formed in war, and it’s flourished in peace. Seemingly every day we’ve launched new areas of cooperation, all areas that matter most to our future.”
But the trip isn’t without diplomatic and economic tension.
A recent leak of classified U.S. intelligence documents seemingly showed Washington was spying on South Korea’s leadership. Yoon played down the spying suggestion during Wednesday’s press conference, stating the two nations are in communication and are “sharing necessary information” as the U.S. investigation into documents’ disclosure plays out.
Some South Korean officials have expressed concern about two major pieces of American legislation — the Inflation Reduction Act and the Chips and Science Act — stating provisions of the laws discriminate against Korean businesses.
Biden, pressed on whether the Chips Act was damaging the key ally, defended the law as a “win-win.”
“Two significant South Korean companies decided they were going to invest billions of dollars in chip manufacturing in the United States,” he said. “It wasn’t designed to hurt China, it was designed to, so we didn’t have to worry about whether or not we had access to semiconductors.”
Yoon said the U.S. and South Korea have agreed to coordinate so that the laws “can further strengthen supply chain cooperations between the two countries in advanced technology.”
Meanwhile, Yoon has faced pressure from the U.S. and NATO to provide artillery to Ukraine as it faces depleted stocks. The leaked U.S. documents included descriptions of South Korea’s National Security Council’s internal discussions about the U.S. request to provide artillery ammunition to Ukraine.
South Korea’s longstanding policy has been not to provide lethal weapons to countries at war.
Yoon said Wednesday that the U.S. and South Korea “agreed to continue our cooperation and efforts, alongside the international community, to support Ukraine” but made no mention of artillery.
A hot-mic moment last year also caught Yoon insulting U.S. members of Congress as “idiots” if they didn’t approve funding to the Global Fund, an organization dedicated to fighting AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
(WASHINGTON) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to take a major step closer to announcing that he’s running for president in 2024, with plans in the works to launch an exploratory committee as early as mid-May, sources familiar tell ABC News.
DeSantis’ official announcement would come soon after, with the governor currently eyeing mid-June, the sources said. The news was first reported by NBC News.
A spokesperson for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The governor has long been seen as former President Donald Trump’s main rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
ABC News previously reported that DeSantis has privately indicated to allies that he intends to launch a run for the White House.
The governor has suggested that any political decision would have to wait until after his state’s Legislature has adjourned this year, which will be in early May.
“This is going to be the most productive legislative session we have had across the board, and I think people are going to be really excited,” he said on Fox & Friends in February, during which he also touted his new book and accompanying tour. “As we get beyond that, then we can decide from there,” he said then.
While Florida currently has a “resign-to-run” law that would require DeSantis to step down if he launched a White House bid, a state senator this week introduced an amendment to exempt “persons seeking the office of President or Vice President of the United States.”
DeSantis, both popular and controversial, easily won reelection in November and has since sought to share Florida’s “blueprint” for success with other parts of the country.
At the same time, he has focused on culture war issues — such as restricting classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender — while fighting what he calls excessive “wokeness” in America, driven by liberals.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal appeals panel on Wednesday rejected an effort from former President Donald Trump to prevent former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying before the special counsel investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The order from a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — the details of which remain under seal — would clear the way for Pence to testify before special counsel Jack Smith should Trump’s legal team not seek any further appeal before the full Circuit or the Supreme Court.
Trump previously sought to assert executive privilege in an attempt to block Pence’s testimony, but late last month the chief judge for the D.C. district court, James Boasberg, rejected his team’s arguments and ordered Pence to testify and provide records to Smith.
Boasberg, however, did narrowly uphold parts of a separate legal challenge brought by Pence himself, who argued he should be shielded from having to testify on certain aspects related to his role as president of the Senate overseeing the certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Pence was subpoenaed by the special counsel in February, following months of negotiations between federal prosecutors and Pence’s legal team.
Pence said this month that he would not seek further appeal, though said he was unsure whether Trump’s team would continue their own fight to prevent his testimony and bring their executive privilege claims before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In previous instances where Trump’s team has sought intervention from the D.C. Circuit, judges there acted swiftly to order legal briefs from his team and the special counsel before rejecting his legal challenges.
A spokesperson for the special counsel’s office declined to comment to ABC News.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — House Republicans on Wednesday passed a bill to increase the nation’s debt ceiling while cutting federal government spending — and while the legislation has no prospect of becoming law, GOP leaders hope it will help force negotiations with Democrats.
The proposal, known as the Limit, Save, Grow Act, passed 217-215, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in voting no.
If enacted, the bill would increase the debt limit by $1.5 trillion, reduce funding for federal agencies to 2022 fiscal year levels, limit growth in government spending to 1% per year and block various measures backed by the White House, such as federal student debt cancellation and new funding for the IRS.
“We cannot sit back and ignore the problem like the president has. I know he does it with the border, and I know he is now doing it with the fiscal policy of America,” McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday before the vote.
“We want to sit down and work together, and that is exactly what this bill does,” he said, noting that “we are sitting at $31 trillion of debt.”
The proposed debt limit increase would last through March 2024 — a shorter extension than preferred by President Joe Biden — in exchange for spending cuts and policy changes.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said the bill has no chance in his chamber and the president has vowed to veto it. Democrats have repeatedly insisted the debt ceiling should be raised separate from any compromise on government spending and policy.
“Congress is going to need to raise the debt limit without — without — conditions and it’s just that simple,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in January. She recently labeled the House bill a “ransom note.”
In remarks at a news conference on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged the House GOP bill couldn’t clear the Senate but said that McCarthy and Biden must come to some compromise. “We must never default, and the agreement needs to be reached between the speaker and the president,” he said.
Citing past debt ceiling negotiations that involved Biden during the Obama administration, McConnell said Biden “knows that sometimes in divided government, you don’t get things exactly the way you want them.”
On Wednesday afternoon, before the House voted, Biden was asked a shouted question about negotiating on the debt ceiling as he left a press conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is visiting Washington.
“They haven’t figured out the debt limit yet,” Biden said, somewhat sarcastically.
When a reporter asked if he would meet with McCarthy, the president said yes — but made it clear, once again, that he views increasing the debt ceiling as “not negotiable.”
“I’m happy to meet with McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended,” he said.
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please return for updates.
(HELENA, Mont.) — The Montana House voted on Wednesday to censure the state’s first openly transgender legislator Zooey Zephyr, who called for her colleagues to vote against a gender-affirming care ban for transgender youth.
The House voted 68-32 to censure Zephyr, who is barred from participating from the House floor.
On April 20, Zephyr told conservative lawmakers they would have “blood on their hands” during debate on SB99, which would ban gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The bill passed and is now on the desk of Gov. Greg Gianforte, who has signaled his support for the legislation.
On Wednesday, in a hearing before the vote about disciplinary actions Zephyr could face, she defended her words.
“I rose up in defense of my community that day, speaking to harms that these bills bring that I have firsthand experience knowing about. I have had friends who have taken their lives because of these bills. I have fielded calls from families in Montana, including one family whose trans teenager attempted to take her life while watching a hearing on one of the anti trans bills,” she said on the House floor.
Zephyr said, “When the speaker asks me to apologize … on behalf of decorum, what he’s really asking me to do is be silent when my community is facing bills that get us killed.”
The “Youth Health Protection Act” would restrict the use of hormone therapy, puberty blockers and surgeries on people under age 18 for the purposes of gender transitioning.
Gender-affirming care has been found to be associated with improved mental health of transgender adolescents and teenagers, according to research in the New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA Pediatrics.
Gender dysphoria, the stress one may feel when they do not desire the gender identity typically associated with their assigned sex at birth, can lead to negative mental health outcomes for transgender people, according to studies.
“If you are denying gender-affirming care and forcing a trans child to go through puberty, that is tantamount to torture, and this body should be ashamed,” said Zephyr in the April 18 debate.
She continued, “If you vote yes on this bill, I hope the next time you bow your heads in prayer, you see the blood on your hands.”
Zephyr told ABC News that she believes she is being silenced by “those in power who don’t want to be held accountable.”
“When I stood up to speak on Senate Bill 99, I chose my words with precision, and I spoke with clarity because I see the real harm that these bills bring. I won’t be apologizing for my remarks,” she said on ABC News’ Start Here podcast.
Zephyr told ABC News that she has been stonewalled from debate or comment on the Montana House floor for over a week by Republican leaders, who say her comments broke the rules of “decorum.”
“All representatives are free to participate in House debate while following the House rules; the choice to not follow House rules is one that Representative Zephyr has made,” said House Speaker Matt Regier in a statement to reporters. “The only person silencing Representative Zephyr is Representative Zephyr.”
The Montana Freedom Caucus, which includes several of Zephyr’s colleagues, misgendered Zephyr by using he/him pronouns and argued the legislation “protects minor children from forced life-altering and unnecessary surgical procedures.” Physicians from across the country have previously told ABC News that some types of gender-affirming care are reversible or partially reversible and are only pursued after thorough discussions and evaluations with medical professionals.
On Monday, protesters took to the statehouse chanting, “let her speak!” as a debate about a separate bill that would allow students to misgender or deadname transgender people without disciplinary action went on. Several protesters were arrested. Deadnaming refers to the use of a transgender person’s name from before they transitioned, such as their birth name.
Other legislators say Zephyr encouraged their disruptions.
“When the speaker disallowed me to speak, what he was doing is taking away the voices of the 11,000 Montanans who represent who elected me to speak on their behalf,” Zephyr said Wednesday in defense of protestors.
Late Tuesday, legislators were told they would be voting Wednesday on whether Zephyr “violated the rules, collective rights, safety, dignity, integrity or decorum of the House of Representatives” and if her actions warrant discipline.
The House “may expel or punish a member for good cause shown with the concurrence of two-thirds of all its members,” according to the Montana Constitution.
Her censure is reminiscent of the Republican-controlled Tennessee state House of Representatives expulsion of two Democratic lawmakers in what marked the first partisan expulsion in the state’s modern history.
On April 6, state Reps. Justin Jones and Justin J. Pearson were expelled for allegedly violating the chamber’s rules of decorum by protesting gun control on the House floor.
The protest was in response to the mass school shooting in Nashville that left three children and three adults dead.
Pearson was reinstated by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners and Jones was reinstated by the Nashville Metro Council.
Rep. Gloria Johnson evaded expulsion for her participation in the protest by one vote.
“We’re also in a moment right now with those in power in the Republican Party don’t want to be held accountable,” Zephyr told ABC News. “So whether it is my transness here in Montana rising up in defense of my community, other cisgender women rising up in defense of the trans community in Nebraska or people in Tennessee, representatives in Tennessee rising up about gun violence. It’s really about the marginalized being silenced by those in power who don’t want to be held accountable.”
States across the country are considering bans on transgender health care for minors that are similar to Montana’s SB99.
At least 12 states — Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, South Dakota, Tennessee and Utah — have passed laws or policies that restrict gender-affirming care for people under the age of legal majority, which is the threshold for legal adulthood.
