(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Florida’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted during a special session Thursday to send two highly controversial bills — one that greenlights Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan to redraw the state’s 28 districts into a GOP-friendly configuration that splits up Black voters and another that would eliminate Walt Disney World’s special district — to the governor’s desk for signature.
DeSantis’ map, if it survives expected legal challenges, would wipe out any gains by Democrats made during the national redistricting process by adding four Republican-leaning seats and eliminating three highly competitive seats from the previous map. That would leave the state with 18 Republican-leaning and eight Democrat-leaning seats and threaten the already razor-thin majority Democrats hold on the House of Representatives.
It would also split up Black voters by slashing the number of Black-majority districts in half from four to two and overhauling Florida’s 5th District, which stretches in North Florida from Tallahassee to Jacksonville and is represented in Congress by a Black Democrat — Rep. Al Lawson.
The measure that would eliminate Walt Disney World’s status was put forward by Republicans after Disney vowed to help repeal Florida’s highly-controversial Parental Rights in Education Law, dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill, which limits the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms. The bill would terminate the 25,000-acre Reedy Creek Improvement District that Walt Disney World uses to operate as its own municipality, along with five others.
ABC News is owned by The Walt Disney Company, which also owns Walt Disney World.
Florida Democrats’ attempt to block the two votes failed Thursday despite a group taking to the House floor with signs in protest moments before the legislature was to vote around midday.
One of those protestors was Rep. Angie Nixon, who demanded the legislature draw its own map rather than move forward with the one submitted by DeSantis and his advisers.
“Our demands are clear. The legislature needs to draw maps,” said Nixon. “The Republicans in leadership need to come to the Democratic leadership, and we’re going to draw some constitutional maps. Those are our demands and we will not be moved.”
Democrats were able to stave off the special session for an hour, but Republicans eventually returned to the chamber and moved to push both bills successfully, over yells and chanting from dissenters.
“This is how Democracy dies: with a round of applause,” wrote Rep. Anna Eskami on Twitter moments after the legislature approved the redistricting map.
DeSantis, a Republican, originally called the special session after vetoing a GOP-backed version of redistricting maps passed through the Florida House and Senate, claiming that the preservation of districts that lump voters together by race was unconstitutional.
Earlier this month, DeSantis vowed to submit a “race-neutral” map.
“We are not going to have a 200-mile gerrymander that divvies up people based on the color of their skin. That is wrong,” said DeSantis. “That is not the way we’ve governed in the state of Florida and so that will be that. And obviously, that will be litigated.”
On Wednesday, the Republican-led Florida Senate voted to pass the two bills, which are expected to be signed into law by the end of the week.
(WASHINGTON) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is slamming the Federal Aviation Administration for a plane scare that triggered a frantic evacuation of the U.S. Capitol Wednesday night.
She blamed the FAA for not notifying U.S. Capitol Police that a U.S. Army plane would be flying in restricted airspace near the Capitol — carrying parachute jumpers taking part in a demonstration at nearby Nationals Park.
“The Federal Aviation Administration’s apparent failure to notify Capitol Police of the pre-planned flyover Nationals Stadium is outrageous and inexcusable,” Pelosi said in a statement released by her office. “The unnecessary panic caused by this apparent negligence was particularly harmful for Members, staff and institutional workers still grappling with the trauma of the attack on their workplace on January 6th.”
On Jan. 6, the Capitol was breached by supporters of then President Donald Trump and poor information sharing was seen by at least one congressional committee as an intelligence failure by law enforcement.
The Capitol Police and other federal law enforcement entities have vowed to be better about information sharing and since that day every incident on Capitol Hill has been met with a large police presence and show of force.
Shortly after 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Capitol Police sent an alert about an aircraft intrusion, calling for an urgent evacuation of the U.S. Capitol.
A short time later, U.S. Capitol Police sent another notice that the aircraft no longer posed a threat.
“As soon as it was determined that we were not given advanced notice of an approved flight, our officers followed USCP policies and procedures and immediately led everyone safely out of the Congressional building,” Capitol Police said in a statement on Thursday. “It is extremely unusual not to be made aware of a flight in advance.”
The agency noted the last time they had an evacuation due to an aircraft was in 2014, adding the decision to evacuate the Capitol is one they don’t take lightly.
Capitol Police confirmed that the plane was a military flight by the Golden Knights Parachute Team for Military Appreciation night at Nationals Park.
Army parachutists landed on the field just before first pitch between the Arizona Diamondbacks and Washington Nationals.
The Army’s Recruiting Command says its initial review of Wednesday night’s incident has found that the Golden Knights parachute team filed all the appropriate FAA documentation and received proper FAA approval for their flight plan last night over Nationals Park.
“The team also confirmed the pilots established and maintained communication with the FAA prior to and throughout the operation,” says an Army spokesperson in a statement on Thursday.
The FAA has not responded to ABC News request for comment.
ABC News’ Sarah Shales, Mariam Khan and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack is expected to meet with Donald Trump Jr. in the coming days, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
Trump Jr.’s appearance is voluntary and comes after the committee invited him to speak with their investigators, sources told ABC News. The panel has not subpoenaed him.
Trump Jr. would become the latest member of the Trump family to meet with the committee. In recent weeks, the panel interviewed Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, both of whom served as senior White House advisers to former President Donald Trump.
An attorney for Trump Jr. did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, Trump Jr.’s fiance, met with the committee for a second time earlier this week in an interview that sources said was contentions at times and focused in part on the fundraising efforts around Trump’s “Save America” rally on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021.
Trump Jr.’s text messages are among those that former chief of staff Mark Meadows turned over to the committee, sources said.
As ABC News has previously reported, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the vice chair of the panel, quoted extensively from text messages sent to Meadows during the riot from Fox News hosts, GOP lawmakers and Donald Trump Jr.
At the time, Cheney said the messages left “no doubt” the White House “knew exactly what was happening” at the Capitol during the riot.
“He’s got to condemn [the riot] ASAP,” Trump Jr. told Meadows in a text message, according to Cheney, saying that Trump’s tweet about Capitol Police “is not enough.”
“I’m pushing it hard,” Meadows replied. “I agree.”
“We need an Oval Office address,” Trump Jr. said in a follow up message. “He has to lead now. It has gone too far and gotten out of hand.”
The committee is expected to hold public hearings in June and eventually publish a report on their findings, ABC News has previously reported.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday announced an additional $800 million package in military assistance to Ukraine — as well as a ban on all Russian-affiliated ships from U.S. ports — as Russian forces launch a long-expected, large-scale campaign to seize the country’s east.
“We’re in a critical window now of time where — they’re going to set the stage for the next phase of this war,” Biden said from the White House Roosevelt Room, adding the U.S. and allies will continue to provide Ukraine with “equipment they need — their forces need — to defend their nation.”
Biden said the new aid package will include “heavy artillery weapons, dozens of howitzers, and 144,000 rounds of ammunition to go with those howitzers,” as well as tactical drones.
It follows another of similar size, which Biden announced last week, but focuses more on artillery and ammunition, U.S. officials told ABC News earlier this week.
Biden said the U.S. has sent “equipment that is responsive to Ukraine’s needs and tailored to support the intensified fighting in the Donbas region, which is a different war than in other places because both topographically, it’s different — it’s flat, it’s not in the mountains — and it requires different kinds of weapons to be more effective.”
“Every American taxpayer, every member of our armed forces can be proud of the fact that our country’s generosity — and the skill and service of our military — helped arm and repel Russia’s aggression in Ukraine to beat back Putin’s savagery that tried to seize Ukraine’s capital and wipe out Ukraine’s government,” Biden added.
With this latest package, the U.S. is on track to having announced about $3 billion in military aid since the start started in late February. In particular, this is the eighth tranche of U.S. assistance from the Pentagon’s existing stockpile, using what’s known as presidential drawdown authority to expedite delivery.
As more than 5 million have fled Ukraine since the war began, Biden also announced a new program dubbed “Unite for Ukraine” to fast-track Ukrainian refugees coming to the U.S.
“This new humanitarian parole program will complement the existing legal pathways available to Ukrainians, including immigrant visas and refugees processing” and “provide an expedient channel for secure legal migration from Europe to the United States for Ukrainians, who have a U.S. sponsor such as a family or an NGO,” Biden said.
Beginning April 25, the administration says U.S.-based individuals and entities can apply to the Department of Homeland Security to sponsor Ukrainian citizens. Those who apply to sponsor Ukrainians will be required to declare their financial support and pass a background check, according to administration officials, and there is no limit on how many Ukrainians a person or entity can sponsor.
“This program will be fast, it will be streamlined, and will ensure the United States honors its commitment to go to the people of Ukraine and need not go through our southern border,” Biden added.
“That means no ship, no ship that sails on the Russian flag or that is owned or operated by Russian interest would be allowed to dock on the united States port or access our shores. None,” he said.
After meeting with Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal ahead of his remarks, Biden again called on Congress to provide more funding for weapons and ammunition because existing money is “almost exhausted,” he said, even with an additional $500 million in economic aid to Ukraine’s government the Treasury Department also announced Thursday, separate from the latest $800 million military package.
Russia offered another ultimatum Wednesday to allow Ukrainian fighters to leave a steel plant in Mariupol — but those fighters, for days, have refused to surrender. Finally seizing the strategic port city after weeks of besiegement and bombardment would help give Russian forces a land bridge between Crimea, which Russia has occupied since 2014, and the eastern provinces known as the Donbas, where Russian-led separatists have battled the Ukrainian government since 2014, too.
The Donbas is expected to be Russia’s focus now, but the U.S. remains concerned that Russian forces will target the paths in western Ukraine being used to ship Western military aid into the country, a defense official told ABC News.
While they have not done so yet, cutting off those supply routes will help the Kremlin isolate Ukrainian forces in the east, the official added.
The U.S. believes Russians will target the paths in western Ukraine being used to ship in Western military aid in order to isolate Ukrainian forces in the east, a defense official told ABC News.
“Right now, we know from our discussions with the Ukrainians that they are getting this material,” a defense official said Tuesday. “It’s getting into the hands of their fighters.”
The U.S. and other Western countries have now provided Ukraine with close to 70,000 anti-tank weapons, including several varieties of shoulder-fired missiles. The number of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles that the U.S. and other countries have sent to Ukraine is nearing 30,000.
Those missiles have been used by Ukrainian forces to great effect, but as the battle shifts from Ukraine’s major cities and suburbs to the more flat eastern provinces, Kyiv’s troops will need more artillery and ammunition instead.
Four flights carrying military aid from the $800 million drawdown package Biden announced last week arrived in Ukraine over the last 24 hours, some of them carrying U.S. howitzers and 155mm ammunition for them, a senior defense official said Wednesday, adding more equipment will arrive over the next 24 hours.
ABC News asked the official why the U.S. decided to send U.S. artillery to the Ukrainians.
“We’re mindful of the importance of artillery in the fight that they’re in right now and in the fighting in the days to come because of the terrain, and because of what we think they’re going to be up against with Russian forces,” the official responded. Another reason was “the fact that it wouldn’t require an onerous amount of training for the Ukrainians to know how to use them” and the ability to ship them quickly, according to the official.
After Biden called Russia’s actions in Ukraine “genocide” for the first time last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Wednesday that the same horrors witnessed in Bucha — “death, destruction, atrocities” — may take place in the eastern city of Mariupol “at some point,” even as Russian forces seem already poised to fully capture the strategic city.
“We can only anticipate that when this tide also at some point recedes from Mariupol, we’re going to see far worse — if that’s possible to imagine,” Blinken said. “So the conditions there, the situation there as a result of this Russian aggression are truly horrific.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday was set to announce an additional $800 million package of military assistance to Ukraine as Russian forces launch a long-expected, large-scale campaign to seize the country’s east.
The aid package follows another of similar size, which Biden announced last week, but focuses more on artillery and ammunition, U.S. officials told ABC News.
With this latest package, the U.S. is on track to having announced about $3 billion in military aid since the start started in late February. In particular, this is the eighth tranche of U.S. assistance from the Pentagon’s existing stockpile, using what’s known as presidential drawdown authority to expedite delivery.
Russia offered another ultimatum Wednesday to allow Ukrainian fighters to leave a steel plant in Mariupol — but those fighters, for days, have refused to surrender. Finally seizing the strategic port city after weeks of besiegement and bombardment would help give Russian forces a land bridge between Crimea, which Russia has occupied since 2014, and the eastern provinces known as the Donbas, where Russian-led separatists have battled the Ukrainian government since 2014, too.
The Donbas is expected to be Russia’s focus now, but the U.S. remains concerned that Russian forces will target the paths in western Ukraine being used to ship Western military aid into the country, a defense official told ABC News.
While they have not done so yet, cutting off those supply routes will help the Kremlin isolate Ukrainian forces in the east, the official added.
The U.S. believes Russians will target the paths in western Ukraine being used to ship in Western military aid in order to isolate Ukrainian forces in the east, a defense official told ABC News.
“Right now, we know from our discussions with the Ukrainians that they are getting this material,” a defense official said Tuesday. “It’s getting into the hands of their fighters.”
The U.S. and other Western countries have now provided Ukraine with close to 70,000 anti-tank weapons, including several varieties of shoulder-fired missiles. The number of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles that the U.S. and other countries have sent to Ukraine is nearing 30,000.
Those missiles have been used by Ukrainian forces to great effect, but as the battle shifts from Ukraine’s major cities and suburbs to the more flat eastern provinces, Kyiv’s troops will need more artillery and ammunition instead.
Four flights carrying military aid from the $800 million drawdown package Biden announced last week arrived in Ukraine over the last 24 hours, some of them carrying U.S. howitzers and 155mm ammunition for them, a senior defense official said Wednesday, adding more equipment will arrive over the next 24 hours.
ABC News asked the official why the U.S. decided to send U.S. artillery to the Ukrainians.
“We’re mindful of the importance of artillery in the fight that they’re in right now and in the fighting in the days to come because of the terrain, and because of what we think they’re going to be up against with Russian forces,” the official responded.
Another reason was “the fact that it wouldn’t require an onerous amount of training for the Ukrainians to know how to use them” and the ability to ship them quickly, according to the official.
More than five million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the war, according to the United Nations.
After Biden called Russia’s actions in Ukraine “genocide” for the first time last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Wednesday that the same horrors witnessed in Bucha — “death, destruction, atrocities” — may take place in the eastern city of Mariupol “at some point,” even as Russian forces seem already poised to fully capture the strategic city.
“We can only anticipate that when this tide also at some point recedes from Mariupol, we’re going to see far worse — if that’s possible to imagine,” Blinken said. “So the conditions there, the situation there as a result of this Russian aggression are truly horrific.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration on Thursday announced it is moving to fast-track Ukrainian refugees coming to the United States.
Beginning April 25, the administration says U.S.-based individuals and entities can apply to the Department of Homeland Security to sponsor Ukrainian citizens — in an operation dubbed “Uniting for Ukraine.”
Any U.S. citizen or entity can apply sponsor Ukrainians and will be required to declare their financial support and pass a background check. Administration officials said there is no limit on how many Ukrainians a person or entity can sponsor.
“We are anticipating obviously a large majority of individuals who applied for this process go through this process role in my family units,” a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call Thursday.
Any Ukrainian who has been a resident of the country since Feb. 11 and has up to date vaccinations will be eligible for the program. They will be subject to a background check and biometric screening and other security checks.
Once in the U.S, Ukrainians will have up to two years to be considered for parole, but officials said they anticipate the length of time in the U.S. to be short term.
“What many of us have heard out in the region in Eastern Europe is a lot of Ukrainians don’t even want to go further east, from the border countries in Eastern Europe, because it’s a situation where women and children are separated from their husbands, fathers brothers, and so they’re quite keen staying near Ukraine to return as soon as possible,” one official said.
Administration officials told reporters on Thursday they hope it will be a “streamlined process” through an online portal where sponsors and Ukrainian nationals can both upload documents after being approved.
They said they anticipate the process to be “fairly quick,” but didn’t offer an exact timeframe.
Ukrainians who don’t have a visa to enter the U.S. will be encouraged to apply for this program as they say it’s the safest way to enter the U.S., officials said.
Administration officials said this was part of President Joe Biden’s promise to take in 100,000 Ukrainians into the United States.
“We are proud to deliver on President Biden’s commitment to welcome 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russian aggression to the United States. The Ukrainian people continue to suffer immense tragedy and loss as a result of Putin’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on their country,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. “DHS will continue to provide relief to the Ukrainian people, while supporting our European allies who have shouldered so much as the result of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.”
As of late, some Ukrainians seeking asylum in the U.S. have been going to the U.S.-Mexico border. The administration says after April 25, Ukrainians who present themselves at a border port of entry will be denied entry into the U.S. and referred to the “Uniting for Ukraine” program.
Ukrainians “may be refused entry under our existing laws as I think everybody knows, we are continuing to enforce the public health authority under Title 42 at the land border to the 23rd that will be the case for all nationalities,” one senior administration official said.
Title 42, the Trump-era policy which expelled migrants on the basis of the pandemic is set to be phased out by the administration on May 23.
That official added that applying for the program may be a little bit more difficult if the applicant isn’t up to date on vaccines because it could be a “little bit harder” to get vaccinated in Mexico.
For those who don’t have sponsors, friends or family in the United States, the administration is working with NGO’s and nonprofit organizations to help connect people to them.
“One of the reasons we are having sponsors that are entity based…is precisely to deal with those situations,” one administration official said.
In addition to this program, which they say is new, the State Department will expand resettlement operations in Europe for Ukrainian citizens.
Administration officials said the State Department is helping 18,000 Ukrainians in Eastern Europe resettle, including those considered especially vulnerable, citing LGBTQ refugees as an example.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department said Wednesday it will appeal a court ruling by a Florida judge that struck down the federal government’s order to wear masks while traveling, after the administration’s top public health officials insisted the mandate was still necessary “at this time.”
The move is unlikely to force masks back on travelers just yet. The legal fight could take weeks or even months to resolve, and the federal government has said it’s not currently enforcing the mandate, which was set to expire on May 3.
But the Biden administration’s announcement makes clear that it wants to fight the ruling to retain the power to mandate masks aboard planes, inside airports and other transportation hubs to prevent the spread of disease.
“It is CDC’s continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health… CDC believes this is a lawful order, well within CDC’s legal authority to protect public health,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in a statement.
Earlier this month, the CDC had extended the mask mandate for an extra two weeks, saying it needed more time to assess a recent uptick in cases and citing the unique risks posed by travel. But that plan was tossed out Monday after a Trump-appointed judge declared the latest extension of the mandate unlawful and said the agency hadn’t gone through the proper administrative process.
While many travelers cheered the move, the decision injected uncertainty into Americans’ travel plans and sowed confusion. Some people even said they were mid-flight when their pilot announced masks were suddenly optional. An estimated 3% of Americans are immunocompromised and more vulnerable to complications of the virus, even if vaccinated. Also, children under age 5 remain ineligible for the vaccine.
“It wouldn’t bother me as much if the removal of the mask mandate had come from a medical source — someone with perhaps a medical degree or a career spent studying viruses, causes and cures,” said John Shepard, an Uber driver in Winter Haven, Florida, who says he is immunocompromised.
“But to me, this was just a political move by a Trump-appointed judge who wanted to score political points, and it’s putting millions of people at risk,” he added.
Public health experts said it was possible the CDC was going to let the mandate lapse after May 3 anyway — if hospitalization numbers remained flat — but that it would want the power to reinstate it in the future.
“This change in policy sets a really challenging precedent for how public health is done in this country. A single judge overturning a mandate driven by public health professionals means that we’re unnecessarily putting many people at risk,” said John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC contributor.
The case is not a slam dunk for the administration. The next step is for the Justice Department to file its appeal with the 11th Circuit, and legal experts say it’s likely the decision will eventually end up with the Supreme Court, which has been skeptical in the past of federal powers related to the pandemic.
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — The dispute between Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ and The Walt Disney Company continued to play out in public on Wednesday when the Florida state Senate passed a bill that would eliminate Walt Disney World’s special district in the state.
The legislation, which was voted on during a special session of the legislature focused on redistricting, was put forward by Republicans after Disney opposed Florida’s highly controversial Parental Rights in Education Law, dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
“I am announcing today that we are expanding the call of what they are going to be considering this week. And so yes, they will be considering the congressional map but they also will be considering termination of all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968, and that includes the Reedy Creek Improvement District,” DeSantis said Tuesday, referring to Disney’s district.
The Florida Senate passed the bill in a 23-16 vote, and it’s expected to go to the House swiftly for a vote by Thursday.
If passed by the House and signed into law, it would terminate the special district that Walt Disney World uses to operate as its own municipality and could set up a court battle over the theme parks’ future.
ABC News is owned by The Walt Disney Company, which also owns Walt Disney World.
State Rep. Randy Fine, a sponsor of the measure, was in committee Wednesday to face questions from colleagues about the bill, and some asked whether the intent was to target the Walt Disney Company.
Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith asked Fine about what would happen to the other special districts that would be eliminated under the legislation and if they would become a “casualty of this vendetta against Disney.”
Fine pushed back, saying Republicans were looking into all special districts, not just Disney’s.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District is one of six districts the bill would eliminate. It stretches 25,000 acres and oversees its own land use and environmental protections as well as provides essential public services such as emergency medical services and fire protection.
Disney’s status became the subject of DeSantis’ public scrutiny after the media conglomerate spoke out about Florida’s new law that limits the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms and which DeSantis signed into law in late March. The Walt Disney Company vowed to help appeal it.
“Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law. Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that. We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country,” said a Disney spokesperson at the time.
(NEW YORK) — While the mask mandate on public transportation has been lifted, the Federal Aviation Administration’s zero-tolerance policy for unruly passengers is here to stay, the agency said Wednesday.
The FAA instituted its zero-tolerance policy during the pandemic in an effort to curb a surge in disruptive behavior on planes.
The rule, which is now permanent, allows the FAA to fine passengers up to $37,000 per violation for unruly behavior.
The FAA said the program has helped reduce the incident rate by more than 60%.
“Behaving dangerously on a plane will cost you; that’s a promise,” Acting FAA Administrator Billy Nolen said in a news release. “Unsafe behavior simply does not fly and keeping our Zero Tolerance policy will help us continue making progress to prevent and punish this behavior.”
This year alone, the FAA has received 1,233 reports of unruly passengers on flights — 797 of which were mask-related.
The agency has issued over $2 million in fines just in 2022.
As of Feb. 16, 2022, the FAA had referred 80 unruly passenger cases to the FBI for criminal review.
(ORLANDO) — The Florida Department of Health has released new guidance reaffirming its stance against gender-affirming care for transgender youth, following similar efforts by several other Republican-led states across the country.
The agency slammed the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which recently stated its commitment to “supporting and protecting” transgender youth, their families and caretakers.
“The federal government’s medical establishment releasing guidance failing at the most basic level of academic rigor shows that this was never about health care,” said Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo.
He claimed the HHS’ move to protect gender-affirming care was about “injecting political ideology into the health of our children.”
Sarah Lovenheim, the assistant secretary of public affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, slammed the decision.
“HHS stands with transgender and gender non-conforming youth and their families — and the significant majority of expert medical association — in unequivocally stating that gender-affirming care for minors, when medically appropriate and necessary, improves their physical and mental health,” she said in a statement.
In March, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra announced actions the department was taking to protect the decisions of families with LGBTQ youth following a move from Texas leaders that declared gender-affirming care “child abuse.”
“At HHS, we listen to medical experts and doctors, and they agree with us, that access to affirming care for transgender youth is essential and can be life-saving,” Becerra said in a statement.
HHS issued guidance that gender-affirming care for minors, when medically appropriate and necessary, improves their physical and mental health.
“Attempts to restrict, challenge, or falsely characterize this potentially lifesaving care as abuse is dangerous,” the HHS stated in its guidance.
It continued, “Such attempts block parents from making critical health care decisions for their children, create a chilling effect on health care providers who are necessary to provide care for these youth, and ultimately negatively impact the health and well-being of transgender and gender-nonconforming.”
The Florida DOH says social gender transition should not be an option for children or adolescents and people under 18 should not be prescribed puberty blockers or hormone therapy.
It also says gender reassignment surgery should not be a treatment option for children or adolescents.
Instead, the department recommends social support and counseling for transgender students.
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
The state agency argued that the use of puberty blockers and hormone treatments can cause a lapse in brain development or cause cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, infertility, increased cancer risk and thrombosis.
This argument has been debunked by several physicians who spoke to ABC News, who say these potential side effects only present real risks after puberty has already occurred and are not a risk to youth taking puberty blockers.
They also assert that adolescents are not being given physical gender reassignment surgeries.
LGBTQ advocates quickly denounced Florida’s move.
“Decades of evidence demonstrates that affirming transgender and nonbinary youth in their identities contributes to positive mental health outcomes and can reduce the risk for suicide,” said Sam Ames, the director of advocacy and government affairs at LGBTQ suicide prevention organization The Trevor Project.
“This is appalling. Governor DeSantis and the Florida Department of Health should be doing everything they can to support all kids, rather than playing politics with their lives,” LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD said in a statement. “All major medical associations support gender-affirming care for trans youth. Denying kids live-saving, medically necessary, gender-affirming care is downright dangerous.”
