Latest moves from White House and Congress endanger patients and health care workers

National Nurses United (NNU), the largest union of registered nurses in the United States, today condemns recent moves by Washington policymakers to attack patients receiving gender-affirming care and the health care workers who provide it.

Nurses across the country reject new Trump Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) plans seeking to ban the provision of gender-affirming care and to intimidate health care workers who care for trans patients.

“Secretary Robert Kennedy’s leadership is once again leading us only further into junk science,” said Mary Turner, RN and NNU president. “Nurses reject any political efforts to restrict any kind of evidence-based care we provide to our patients. This is more D.C. grandstanding that will ultimately hurt real people who are simply seeking medical care. Nurses know health care is a human right, and trans rights are human rights.”

NNU applauds efforts already announced to challenge the new measures.

Nurses are increasingly concerned about the well-being of our most vulnerable patients. A new bill that recently passed the House of Representatives due to bipartisan support seeks to criminalize gender-affirming care for providers like nurses.

NNU nurses have demanded that hospital employers reject similar draconian measures as they have become increasingly common in recent years.

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with more than 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.