Santa Fe, NM — State Senator Gabriel Ramos (R-Silver City) is calling on the Lujan Grisham administration to reverse course after the New Mexico Health Care Authority announced it will use state taxpayer dollars to fund gender-transition treatments for minors, after a change to federal rules makes these services ineligible for Medicaid and CHIP funding beginning this October.
The treatments at issue include puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, and related counseling and therapy services for minors. According to reporting on the agency's plans, New Mexico intends to shift the cost of these services from federal to state funding, essentially requiring New Mexico taxpayers to bankroll these "treatments" for children.
"As a Catholic and a father, I believe every child is made in the image of God and deserves to be protected, not experimented on," said Senator Ramos. "It is unconscionable that this governor wants to force New Mexicans to pay for irreversible interventions on kids who are years away from being old enough to fully understand the consequences. That's not compassion. That's a failure to protect the most vulnerable among us."
Senator Ramos argued that the science behind these interventions remains far from settled, despite the administration's characterization of the treatments as necessary care.
"Families across this state are being told this is simply 'health care,' but this is a rapidly evolving area of medicine with real, unresolved questions about long-term outcomes for children," the Senator said. "With the ethics of the practice in dispute and the effects so potentially irreversible, no taxpayer, regardless of their beliefs, should be forced to underwrite it."
Ramos said his opposition is rooted as much in conscience as in policy.
"My faith teaches that we have a moral obligation to protect children, and I won't stay silent while this administration forces every New Mexico taxpayer, including those of us who believe this is deeply wrong, to help pay for it," Ramos said. "This isn't about judging any family going through a hard situation. It's about whether state government should be forcing the rest of us to fund something so many New Mexicans believe, on moral and religious grounds, is simply wrong to do to a child."
Ramos said the decision also reflects a broader pattern of the administration prioritizing political messaging over fiscal responsibility to taxpayers.
"Time and time again, this administration finds new ways to spend taxpayer money to make a political statement, while working families, many of whom share my concerns about this issue, are the ones left paying the bills," Ramos said. "I will continue to push back on the idea that New Mexico taxpayers have an obligation to fund every woke gender-transition procedure for children just because the state wants to lean into leftist ideology."
Ramos said he intends to raise the issue with legislative colleagues ahead of the next session and will continue pressing the Health Care Authority to not only change course, but to also practice full transparency on the cost of this decision to New Mexico taxpayers.
