What does upholding Tennesee's ban on gender-affirming care for minors mean for similar bills in N.H.?
New Hampshire
Get N.H. Morning Report
A weekday newsletter delivering the N.H. news you need to know right to your inbox.
Enter Email
Sign Up
If either becomes law, New Hampshire would be the first state in New England to enact such bans, joining 25 other states that have banned such care for youth, according to the
that provides research to promote equality.
Advertisement
A
Advertisement
Erchull said the US Supreme Court
ruling finds that a ban on medical care for minors is not sex-based discrimination, but rather a regulation of medical procedures based on age. He disagrees, and notes that
legal avenues are still available to challenge HB 377 should it become law in New Hampshire. That could include a challenge based on the New Hampshire constitution, arguing that the intent of the law was to harm transgender people, or a challenge on the basis of parental rights.
'It's legislation that very clearly impacts a family's ability, a parent's ability, to make important decisions with medical consultation about how to care for their children,' he said. 'And this is coming from the same exact people, the same exact legislators who tout
National Center for LGBTQ Rights Legal Director
'Healthcare decisions belong with families, not politicians. This decision will cause real harm,' he said.
Some New Hampshire Republicans celebrated the US Supreme Court decision.
'I applaud Tennessee for protecting children from irreversible harm by banning puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors,' said New Hampshire state
Representative Sayra DeVito, a Danville Republican who is a co-sponsor of HB 377.
'Children deserve the chance to grow, mature, and fully understand themselves before making permanent decisions about their bodies,' DeVito said in a statement. 'There's no discrimination in protecting children. Tennessee is leading with courage and common sense.'
Advertisement
Representative Erica Layon, a Derry Republican, said she hoped the Supreme Court's decision would 'bring reason back to healthcare for young people.'
'I believe that history will view these surgeries as just as harmful as other conversion therapies practiced in the past upon gay, lesbian and bisexual youth,' she said.
Democrats in New Hampshire, however, are criticizing the decision. House Minority Leader Alexis Simpson of Exeter said the decision cuts off parents' access to critical, evidence-based treatment for their children.
'These attacks aren't about protecting kids, they're actively putting lives at risk, with anti-trans laws tied to a
New Hampshire families with transgender children had been anxiously awaiting the outcome of the Supreme Court case.
Rosie Emrich sits for a portrait with her eight-year-old transgender child at their house in Hooksett, N.H., on April 17, 2025. Emrich said that her family is considering moving from New Hampshire to Massachusetts because of a series of bills that could limit her child's ability to access gender-affirming care.
Brett Phelps for The Boston Globe
Rosie Emrich, who has a transgender child said the US Supreme Court's
decision was 'heartbreaking.'
'I feel sort of gutted,' she said. 'I think maybe I let myself get a little too hopeful.'
Emrich has been weighing whether
For now, she said,
she plans to focus her attention on urging New Hampshire's Republican Governor Kelly Ayotte to veto HB 377.
'It does definitely bring a lot bigger sense of urgency to the stuff going on here in New Hampshire and the push to try to have the governor hear the impacts of this,' she said.
Advertisement
Lawmakers from the House and Senate met this week for negotiations over which version of HB 377 should proceed. The House has agreed to the Senate's position on the bill, and lawmakers have until Thursday afternoon to sign off
Ayotte has not said if she supports a ban on gender-affirming care for minors.
Amanda Gokee can be reached at
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Politico
39 minutes ago
- Politico
Senate Republicans' tax cuts now projected to cost $4.45T
Senate Republicans released updated megabill text late Friday that would make sharp cuts to the Inflation Reduction Act's solar and wind tax credits after a late-stage push by President Donald Trump to crack down further on the incentives. The text would require solar and wind generation projects seeking to qualify for the law's clean electricity production and investment tax credits to be placed in service by the end of 2027 — significantly more restrictive than an earlier proposal by the Senate Finance Committee that tied eligibility to when a project begins construction. The changes came after Trump urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune to crack down on the wind and solar credits and align the measure more closely with reconciliation text, H.R.1, that passed the House, as POLITICO reported earlier on Friday. The changes are likely to put some moderate GOP senators, who have backed a slower schedule for sunsetting those incentives, in a tough position. They'll be forced to choose between rejecting Trump's agenda or allowing the gutting of tax credits that could lead to canceled projects and job losses in their states — something renewable energy advocates are also warning about. 'We are literally going to have not enough electricity because Trump is killing solar. It's that serious,' Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) responded on X early Saturday. 'We need a bunch of new power on the grid, and nothing is as available as solar. Everything else takes a while. Meantime, expect shortages and high prices. Stupid.' The revised text would retain the investment and production tax credits for baseload sources, such as nuclear, geothermal, hydropower or energy storage, as proposed in the Finance Committee's earlier proposal. But it would make other significant changes, including extending a tax credit for clean hydrogen production until 2028. The panel's earlier proposal would have eliminated the credit after this year. And despite vocal lobbying by the solar industry, the proposal would maintain an abrupt cut to the tax incentive supporting residential solar power. The committee's earlier proposal would have eliminated that credit six months after the enactment of the bill; now the updated draft proposes repealing it at the end of this year. It would also deny certain wind and solar leasing arrangements from accessing the climate law's clean electricity investment and production tax credits, but, in a notable change, removed earlier language specifically disallowing rooftop solar. And it would move up the timeline for certain rules barring foreign entities of concern from accessing those credits. The bill would move up the termination date for electric vehicle tax credits to Sept. 30, compared to six months after enactment in the earlier Finance text. The credit for EV chargers would extend through June 2026. The new text also provides a bonus incentive for advanced nuclear facilities built in communities with high levels of employment in the nuclear industry. And the bill makes metallurgical coal eligible for the advanced manufacturing production tax credit through 2029. Sam Ricketts, co-founder of S2 Strategies, a clean energy policy consulting group, said the new draft is going to 'screw' ratepayers, kill jobs and undermine U.S. economic competitiveness. 'All just to give fossil fuel executives more profits,' he said. 'Or to own the libs. Insanity.' Josh Siegel contributed to this report.
Boston Globe
an hour ago
- Boston Globe
Senators voting in weekend session to meet Trump's deadline for passing his tax and spending cuts
Advertisement Ahead of the expected roll call, the White House released a statement of administrative policy saying it 'strongly supports passage' of the bill that 'implements critical aspects' of the president's agenda. Trump himself was at his golf course in Virginia on Saturday with GOP senators posting about it on social media. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'It's time to get this legislation across the finish line,' said Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. But as the day dragged, billionaire Elon Musk lashed out, calling the package 'utterly insane and destructive.' 'The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!' the former top Trump aide said in a post. The Advertisement With the narrow Republican majorities in the House and Senate, leaders need almost every lawmaker on board in the face of essentially unified opposition from Democrats. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Republicans dropped the bill 'in the dead of night' and are rushing to finish the bill before the public fully knows what's in it. He is expected to call for a full reading of the text in the Senate, which would take hours. Make-or-break moment for GOP The weekend session could be a make-or-break moment for Trump's party, which has invested much of its political capital on his signature domestic policy plan. Trump is pushing Congress to wrap it up, even as he sometimes gives mixed signals, allowing for more time. At recent events at the White House, including Friday, Trump has admonished the 'grandstanders' among GOP holdouts to fall in line. The legislation is an ambitious but complicated series of GOP priorities. At its core, it would make permanent many of the tax breaks from Trump's first term that would otherwise expire by year's end if Congress fails to act, resulting in a potential tax increase on Americans. The bill would add new breaks, including no taxes on tips, and commit $350 billion to national security, including for Trump's mass deportation agenda. But the cutbacks to Medicaid, food stamps and green energy investments, which a top Democrat, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon said would be a 'death sentence' for America's wind and solar industries, are also causing dissent within GOP ranks. Advertisement The Republicans are relying on the reductions to offset the lost tax revenues but some lawmakers say the cuts go too far, particularly for people receiving health care through Medicaid. Meanwhile, conservatives, worried about the nation's debt, are pushing for steeper cuts. Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., who said he spoke with Trump late Friday explaining his concerns, announced Saturday he cannot support the package as is, largely because of the changes to health care that he said would force his state to 'make painful decisions like eliminating Medicaid coverage for hundreds of thousands.' Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has been opposed to the bill's provision to raise the nation's debt limit by $5 trillion. And GOP Sen. Tim Sheehy of Montana said he would agree to proceeding only after being assured a provision for public lands sales he opposes would be taken out with an amendment. After setbacks, Republicans revise some proposals The release of that draft had been delayed as the Senate parliamentarian reviewed the bill to ensure it complied with the chamber's strict 'Byrd Rule,' named for the late Sen. Robert C. Byrd, It largely bars policy matters from inclusion in budget bills unless a provision can get 60 votes to overcome objections. That would be a tall order in a Senate with a 53-47 GOP edge and Democrats unified against Trump's bill. Republicans suffered a series of setbacks after several proposals, including shifting food stamp costs from the federal government to the states or gutting the funding structure of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, were deemed out of compliance with the rules. Advertisement But over the past days, Republicans have quickly revised those proposals and reinstated them. The final text includes a proposal for cuts to the Medicaid provider tax that had run into parliamentary hurdles and objections from several senators worried about the fate of rural hospitals. The new version extends the start date for those cuts and establishes a $25 billion fund to aid rural hospitals and providers. Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., who had opposed the cuts, vowed 'to do everything I can' to make sure the reductions never go into effect. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has said that under the House-passed version of the bill, some 10.9 million more people would go without health care and at least 3 million fewer would qualify for food aid. The CBO has not yet publicly assessed the Senate draft, which proposes steeper reductions. Top income-earners would see about a $12,000 tax cut under the House bill, while the package would cost the poorest Americans $1,600, the CBO said. SALT dispute shakes things up The Senate included a compromise over the so-called SALT provision, a deduction for state and local taxes that has been a top priority of lawmakers from New York and other high-tax states, but the issue remains unsettled. The current SALT cap is $10,000 a year, and a handful of Republicans wanted to boost it to $40,000 a year. The final draft includes a $40,000 cap, but limits it for five years. Many Republican senators say that is still too generous. At least one House GOP holdout, Rep. Nick LaLota of New York, had said that would be insufficient. Trump's deadline nears House Speaker Mike Johnson, who sent his colleagues home for the weekend with plans to be on call to return to Washington. But as the Senate draft was revealed, House GOP support was uncertain. One Republican, Rep. David Valadao of California, said he was opposed. Advertisement Associated Press writers Ali Swenson and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Trump, 3 GOP senators play golf ahead of Saturday's push for megabill vote
As Senate wrestled with whether to begin debate on President Donald Trump's megabill, a few key Republican allies spent part of the afternoon golfing with the president at his nearby club in Northern Virginia. Trump, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and GOP Sens. Eric Schmitt of Missouri, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina played golf a few hours before the Senate voted to debate the so-called 'Big Beautiful Bill.' Live updates: It's go time for Senate on Trump's megabill. Do they have the votes? Graham posted a photo of himself and Trump on social media as gave the camera a thumbs up. Graham said in a post that he partnered with Trump and Paul to beat Schmitt and Ratcliffe. "Proud to announce no casualties," Graham wrote. "A lot of fun! Big Beautiful Bill on the way." Schmitt posted a similar photo of himself and the president, writing "Big week for President Trump and he crushed it on the golf course this morning as well." Looking forward to beginning the One Big Beautiful Bill the day with @POTUS and thanked him for his Go! White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters around 2 p.m. that the president was wrapping up lunch and would soon depart the course, located about 25 miles from the White House. Senate Republican leaders launched the debate June 28 that is expected to culminate with a vote June 29 or 30 on the 990-page bill. While Democrats are all expected to vote no on the massive legislative package, the open question going into the debate is whether enough Republicans will end up supporting the Senate's version, which would send it back to the House. Trump has asked Congress to send him the completed bill to sign by July 4. The megabill is stuffed with tax cuts, Medicaid reforms and border security funding, containing several signature campaign promises from Trump and the Republican party. Kathryn Palmer is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@ and on X @KathrynPlmr.
