The American Medical Association released a powerful statement Wednesday saying that “there is no medically valid reason to exclude transgender individuals from military service.”
This came not long after President Donald Trump tweeted that transgender people will no longer be able to serve in the U.S. military “in any capacity.”
“Transgender individuals are serving their country with honor, and they should be allowed to continue doing so,” the AMA said in the statement.
The AMA is the largest association of physicians and medical students in the United States. Citing a 2016 RAND study on the impact of transgender individuals in the military, the AMA noted that the financial cost was a “rounding error in the defense budget and should not be used as an excuse to deny patriotic Americans an opportunity to serve their country.”
The AMA statement said that it supports “public and private health insurance coverage for treatment of gender dysphoria as recommended by the patient’s physician.”
The association has spoken out before with its thoughts on the Trump administration’s actions toward health care, particularly its opposition to the Senate health care bill.
On the trans military ban, the AMA concluded its statement with this: “We should be honoring their service ― not trying to end it.”
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