New Mexico, which is run by far-left Democrats in every place of state power, plans to keep paying for transgender-related medical services for minors even after the Trump administration’s new federal rule cuts off Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program funding for such treatments.
The move means New Mexico taxpayers will be forced to continue footing the bill for puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, sex-change counseling, speech therapy, body hair removal, and other gender-transition services for minors after federal dollars are pulled.
According to The Guardian, the Trump administration finalized the rule on Aug. 13, with the change set to take effect Oct. 13. The rule ends federal Medicaid and CHIP support for the procedures and services commonly described by left-wing activists as “gender-affirming care.”
But New Mexico is apparently not backing down.
Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s New Mexico Health Care Authority “is planning to continue covering these services using state funds,” agency spokesman Timothy Fowler wrote in an email to the Santa Fe New Mexican, according to The Guardian.
That means the state is preparing to defy the federal shift by backfilling the money with state funds, keeping New Mexico on track as one of the Southwest’s most aggressive havens for transgender medical interventions on minors.
New Mexico already has a massive Medicaid and CHIP population. The Guardian reported that, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, New Mexico has the second-highest percentage of residents enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP, with 41.4% of the state’s population on the programs. The outlet also cited KFF data showing 61% of New Mexico children are insured through Medicaid or CHIP.
That makes the Trump administration’s rule especially significant in New Mexico — and makes the state’s decision to keep paying with state money even more consequential for taxpayers.
The funding fight comes as Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham and legislative Democrats have worked to make New Mexico a refuge for abortion and transgender procedures while neighboring states move in the opposite direction.
In 2023, Democrats passed the so-called “Reproductive and Gender-Affirming Health Care Freedom Act,” a law designed to shield abortion and transgender-related services from local restrictions. Since then, New Mexico has been promoted by the left as a destination for families seeking access to these services as other states enact protections for children.
The Guardian reported that families have relocated to New Mexico as protections for transgender-identifying youth have disappeared in neighboring states. The outlet also cited the Williams Institute at UCLA, which estimates that 4,800 transgender-identifying teenagers ages 13 to 17 live in New Mexico.
The same report described the services at issue as including “medical, social and psychological services,” such as puberty blockers, hormones including estrogen and testosterone, speech therapy, body hair removal and counseling.
Many New Mexicans argue those are not harmless political talking points, but life-altering interventions being pushed on children who are not old enough to vote, buy alcohol, or sign major legal contracts.
Far-left supporters claim the services are necessary. The Guardian wrote that major medical organizations support such care as medically necessary and lifesaving.
But the Trump administration’s rule represents a direct challenge to using federal taxpayer dollars for those services, especially when children are involved. New Mexico’s response is to shift the cost to state taxpayers instead.
The state has used this same playbook before.
Earlier this year, New Mexico announced it would use state money to cover the cost of expiring Affordable Care Act tax credits for residents who purchase insurance on the state marketplace. At the time, Lujan Grisham defended the move as a response to Washington.
“We created the Health Care Affordability Fund for moments like this – when Washington fails to protect working families and the most vulnerable among us,” Lujan Grisham said in a statement.
Now, the same state-first spending approach is being applied to transgender medical services for minors.
The difference is that this time, the issue is not just insurance premiums. It is whether New Mexico taxpayers should be required to fund sex-change-related interventions for children after the federal government has said Medicaid and CHIP dollars will no longer pay for them.
New Jersey also recently moved to fund such services through a new shield law, according to The Guardian.
But New Mexico’s situation is especially stark because so many children in the state are enrolled in Medicaid or CHIP. If the state continues covering the services with state-only dollars, the cost and controversy will remain squarely on New Mexico taxpayers.
Democrats will call it “health care.”
Parents and taxpayers may see something very different: a state government determined to keep New Mexico open for experimental and irreversible gender-transition interventions on minors, no matter what the federal government says.