VA nurses say gender-affirming care is health care and health care is a human right. 

Registered nurses at Veterans Administration (VA) facilities across the country condemn the VA secretary’s recent announcement that our health system will end all gender-affirming health care for transgender and intersex veterans who are new patients. Nurses represented by National Nurses United, the country’s largest nursing union, say their patients deserve access to the full range of health care and treatments that have been proven to improve lives. 

Nurses say they are concerned for transgender veterans, a patient population with several high-risk factors for their health. Nurses also believe that prohibiting treatment for intersex veterans further illustrates how this is an attack on health care for vulnerable populations, not a decision made out of consideration for those patients. 

“Gender-affirming care is health care, and health care is a human right,” said Justin Wooden, RN in the intensive care unit (ICU) at James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital in Tampa, Fla. “Our patients are veterans. Many of our colleagues are veterans. They served this country, but now, it seems like the current administration is denying them health care, part of a bigger project to erase them completely. Our patients deserve this health care. Prohibiting the VA from prescribing hormone replacement therapy for veterans is a clear attack on the existence of trans people.”

NNU represents more than 15,000 registered nurses at 23 VA facilities across the country.

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.