Alaska’s Medical Board Attacks Abortion and Gender-Affirming Care

The board’s 6 male members (all appointed by GOP Gov. Mike Dunleavy) want to make providing healthcare to trans kids the same level of malpractice as providing care while drunk or on drugs.

By Danielle Han | August 25, 2025 | 1:32pm

Photo: iStockphoto Politics

Alaska’s Medical Board Attacks Abortion and Gender-Affirming Care

In yet another state-level attempt to obliterate reproductive rights and attack trans kids, the board in charge of regulating healthcare access in Alaska moved to roll back access to gender-affirming care and abortion services on Friday.

The board’s six male members (all of whom were appointed by Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy) unanimously approved a draft regulation to Alaska’s medical board requirements declaring any sort of “medical or surgical intervention to treat gender dysphoria or facilitate gender transition” as one of “unprofessional conduct.” If finalized, it would put providing gender-affirming care for minors (or anyone under the age of 18) at the same level of malpractice as practicing medicine while drunk or on drugs.

Most Popular

Board member Dave Wilson said the committee “acted” on “concern by members of the public”—despite Alaskans overwhelmingly pressuring their state lawmakers to scrap committee hearings about repealing gender-affirming care in 2024.

Ahead of the board’s decision, nearly 700 medical professionals in the state signed a statement organized by Identity Inc. opposing the changes. Tom Pittman, the group’s executive director, called the move politically motivated, saying it would impact vulnerable Alaskans.

The attacks on gender-affirming care (which includes puberty blockers and hormone therapy) have ramped up in recent week—thanks to GOP efforts to revoke the rights of trans children, as well as the Justice Department in July subpoenaing at least 20 hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors. Currently, 27 states have some kind of ban on gender-affirming care for minors. “It’s quite simply the standard of care for trans folks that’s accepted by all major medical organizations in this country,” Dr. Lindsey Banning, one parent to a transgender child, told NPR. “Blocking access to this care has devastating consequences on the health and wellbeing of trans kids dramatically raising rates of depression, anxiety, and suicide.”

The state medical board did not immediately respond to Jezebel’s request for comment.

The medical board on Friday also put out a four-sentence statement asking lawmakers to restrict abortion in Alaska, which is currently one of nine states (along with Washington, D.C.) that have no bans on the procedure. Writing in a letter that late-term abortions are “not ethical medical practice and does not embody the value of Alaskans,” their message concludes with a sweeping call-to-arms: “We encourage Alaskans to engage with their representatives and to advocate for new legislation to bring state law into alignment with community values on this issue.” Speaking of community values, Alaska resoundingly voted for pro-abortion candidates in the 2024 elections.

The medical board will convene again on September 18. And by then, maybe Alaska’s Department of Law will have vetted the draft regulation on gender-affirming care.

“The health care community understands science, and they got into this field because they care about families, they care about people,” Pittman said of the draft regulation. “And they’ll continue to stand behind us.”

Like what you just read? You’ve got great taste. Subscribe to Jezebel, and for $5 a month or $50 a year, you’ll get access to a bunch of subscriber benefits, including getting to read the next article (and all the ones after that) ad-free. Plus, you’ll be supporting independent journalism—which, can you even imagine not supporting independent journalism in times like these? Yikes.