Editors Note: This article contains mention of suicide. If you or a loved one are struggling with mental health, call 1-866-488-7386.

For trans youth, access to gender-affirming care can reduce suicide risk by up to 73 percent.

This means 215 House Republicans have voted to kill thousands of trans Americans, one of many dire consequences of the healthcare cuts following the passage of “The One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”

The act cuts over $700 billion of funding for Medicaid, barring about 13.7 million people in total from accessing healthcare benefits.

The bill includes additional wording that completely bans Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace from covering “gender-transition procedures,” which the bill widely defines to include anything ranging from puberty blockers to hormone replacement therapy to sex change surgery.

Nearly one in four trans adults in the US, over 300,000 people, rely on Medicaid and the ACA to receive their healthcare. 

These changes will lead to the completely avoidable deaths of thousands.

The bill initially imposed bans on gender-affirming care only for minors, but mere hours before the bill passed the house, all reference to minors was taken out, extending the ban to trans people of all ages. The Republican Party’s repeated attacks on trans youth were never just about children; this bill makes their goal clear: complete and total erasure of trans people.

Republicans have signed a death warrant for American citizens, both adults and children, all in facilitation of the largest upward transfer of wealth in American history. Enormous tax cuts for the wealthy, an added $150 billion to an already bloated military budget and another $150 billion to fund inhumane mass deportations; all of which will be built on the graves of some of America’s most vulnerable.

The bill passed the House by a razor-thin margin of 215-214, and is expected to face major resistance in the Senate. While defeat of this bill is far from guaranteed, it is certainly feasible. 

I urge you to ask yourself: How long will it be before your own healthcare is considered unnecessary? Will they choose to remove coverage of your insulin next? Your antidepressants? Or maybe your lifesaving heart surgery? 

Do not sit idly while the Republican Party attempts to murder your trans siblings. Instead, speak up. Call your senators and demand that they vote in opposition to this bill.

How much will you let them take before you fight back?