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Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Ryylan Barton. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy,

Jr., announced a series of actions that could essentially ban gender-affirming care for youth

all over the country. As NPR's Selena Simmons-Duffin reports, they're threatening to withhold

federal funding from hospitals that provide gender-affirming care to minors.

The most significant actions are two proposed rules from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, led by Dr. Mehmet Oz.

One rule says doctors and hospitals cannot get reimbursed by Medicaid for gender-affirming care for youth.

The other is more sweeping.

It says hospitals that provide the

care would be cut off from all Medicare or Medicaid funding for everything. Because federal funding

represents so much of hospital budgets, that rule could shut down gender-affirming care for youth

at hospitals if finalized. The rules don't take effect right away. There's a 60-day comment period

and health officials acknowledged they would face legal challenges. Selina Simmons-Duffin, NPR News, Washington.

The Coast Guard says it will change the manual which downgraded symbols like swastikas and nooses from

hate symbols to potentially divisive. Steve Walsh with W.HRO has the story.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Nome announced Thursday that the weaker language

will be taken out of the Coast Guard's workplace harassment manual. A draft copy of the Coast

Guard's new manual was first uncovered by the Washington Post in November.

...