Report: Spending Package Contains Millions for Transgender Groups, Late-Term Abortion Clinic

Gender-Affirming Care
AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley

The $1.2 trillion government spending package revealed at 3:00 a.m. on Thursday contains earmarks for LGBTQ+ facilities and a late-term abortion clinic. 

“Releasing bill text in the middle of the night is how our government gets locked into funding gaffs and binders for confused kids,” Former Vice President Mike Pence’s Advancing American Freedom (AAF) policy director John Shelton told Fox News. “American taxpayers are funding centers that encourage children to transition without their parents’ knowledge.”

WATCH — Gavin Newsom Laughs at Parents’ Concerns About Transgender Notification Policy:

Joel B. Pollak / Breitbart News

Appropriations documents for the 1,012-page bill show Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) requested $400,000 for a facility called Briarpatch Youth Services.

“One of the group’s programs is called ‘Teens Like Us LGBTQIA2s+‘ for ages 13-18 and a ‘Gender Affirming Clothing Program’ that provides minors with clothing that matches their gender identity,” according to Fox News. “It also organizes a ‘pride prom’ for kids as young as 12, and connects LGBTQ youth without parental knowledge.”

The website states that “youth do NOT need parent/guardian permission to join Teens Like Us. We understand not all youth are at a point in their lives where they can safely and confidently ‘come out.”‘ Briarpatch appears to have scrubbed references to its “Gender Affirming Clothing Program” from its website, according to internet archives. 

Hundreds protest a Trump administration announcement that rescinds an Obama-era order allowing transgender students to use school bathrooms matching their gender identities, at the Stonewall Inn on February 23, 2017 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Baldwin’s office told Newsweek the $400,000 could only be used for mental health services and counseling for children who are homeless and not for the Teens Like Us program.

Another request is from New Jersey Democrat Sens. Cory Booker and Bob Menendez for $400,000 to the state’s largest LGBTQ+ group, the Garden State Equality Education Fund, Inc., according to the report.

“The group provides ‘binders and gaffs’ — two types of undergarments used by transgender people to hide breasts or male genitalia,” the report states. 

Rhode Island Democrat Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse and Jack Reed asked for $1.8 million for the Women and Infants Hospital in Rhode Island for facilities and equipment. The clinic performs elective abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy, according to its website. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) passed the spending bill on Friday despite the objections of the majority of House Republicans in violation of the Hastert Rule.

The Associated Press

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks at the Capitol in Washington on March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

“House Republicans enacted the longstanding rule to prohibit Republican Speakers from colluding with Democrats to pass legislation. But Johnson sent the bill to the Senate despite the objections of 112 Republican colleagues, with only 101 Republican votes in favor, although Johnson and his leadership team applied significant pressure,” Breitbart News’s Bradley Jaye reported.

Johnson also broke a House rule intended to give lawmakers time to review legislation before a vote.

Katherine Hamilton is a political reporter for Breitbart News. You can follow her on X @thekat_hamilton.

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