Christie knocks transgender well being care bans on marketing campaign path: ‘It’s extra of a mum or dad’s resolution’

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) this week mentioned he opposes state legal guidelines that ban gender-affirming well being take care of transgender younger individuals, distancing himself from different Republicans on what’s already shaping as much as be a key challenge within the race for the White Home in 2024.

Christie in a June 18 interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper mentioned states ought to abandon efforts to ban or limit gender-affirming well being take care of transgender youngsters and adolescents, changing them with insurance policies that prioritize parental involvement in transition-related take care of minors.

“I don’t assume that the federal government ought to ever be moving into the place of the dad and mom in serving to to maneuver their youngsters via a course of the place these youngsters are confused or involved about their gender,” mentioned Christie, who launched his 2024 presidential bid earlier this month. “The dad and mom are the people who find themselves greatest positioned to make these judgments.”

“What I’d like to ensure every state does is require that oldsters be concerned in these choices,” he continued, later including: “Of us who’re underneath the age of 18 ought to have parental help and steerage and love as they make the entire key choices of their life, and this shouldn’t be one which’s excluded by the federal government in any approach.”

Twenty states have handed legal guidelines that closely limit or ban gender-affirming well being take care of transgender minors, together with 17 which have accomplished so this yr. In an interview Thursday with Fox & Associates’s Brian Kilmeade, Christie criticized governors which have accredited such laws.

“It’s extra of a mum or dad’s resolution than a governor’s resolution for goodness sakes, Brian,” Christie mentioned. “You actually assume that Sarah Huckabee Sanders must be making this resolution for kids in Arkansas?”

“I like Sarah. I feel she’s an important particular person and a very good governor,” he added. “However I don’t assume she would ever enable the federal government to substitute her judgment as a mom for his or her judgment.”

Christie has not explicitly mentioned whether or not he believes transgender youths ought to have entry to gender-affirming well being care and has not indicated whether or not he helps protect legal guidelines that defend entry to remedy, however his views nonetheless make him an outlier amongst most different GOP 2024 hopefuls.

Former President Trump (R) outlined near a dozen coverage proposals concentrating on gender-affirming well being care in a February marketing campaign video, together with federal laws to ban take care of minors in all 50 states. Trump has additionally pledged to limit entry to gender-affirming take care of transgender adults if he’s reelected.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has expressed comparable views, and as governor signed laws that prohibits well being care suppliers from administering puberty blockers, hormone alternative remedy or surgical procedures to transgender minors. The legislation, which was partially blocked by a federal choose this month, additionally sets up significant barriers for transgender adults to entry care and places suppliers liable to shedding their licenses.

Nikki Haley, a former South Carolina governor and ambassador to the United Nations, has mentioned she believes transgender younger individuals shouldn’t be allowed to medically transition till they’re at the least 18, and even then, “we shouldn’t have taxpayer {dollars} going to that.”

Haley has additionally known as transgender ladies in sports activities the “women’s issue of our time” and advised that a rise in suicidal ideation amongst cisgender teenage women is being pushed by transgender college students utilizing restrooms and locker rooms in keeping with their gender id.

Whereas governor of New Jersey, Christie in 2017 signed laws permitting transgender college students to make use of faculty services that match their gender id and prohibiting well being insurers and Medicaid from discriminating on the premise of gender id.

Fellow Republican presidential candidate Asa Hutchinson, a former governor of Arkansas, equally took steps whereas in workplace to guard the rights of transgender individuals. He vetoed Arkansas’s gender-affirming well being ban — the nation’s first such measure — in 2021, calling the invoice a “huge authorities overreach.”

A federal choose struck down the Arkansas lawwhich took impact after the legislature voted to override Hutchinson’s veto, this week.

Hutchinson has but to deal with transgender well being care on the marketing campaign path. His marketing campaign has not responded to a number of inquiries on the subject from The Hill.