Gender-Affirming Care in Puerto Rico is Under Attack

On September 29, 2025, the government of Puerto Rico drafted a regulatory letter (Carta normativa 25-929) in order to fulfill the federal executive order, which includes reinstating gender restrictions on medication forms in the Plan Vital (Puerto Rican public medical insurance). In essence, the government plans to restrict hormonal treatment for the transgender community.

With 65% of the entire population of Puerto Rico using el Plan Vital, this order will impact the majority of trans people in Puerto Rico. On a 2024 survey conducted by The Trevor Project among LGBTQ+ youth in Puerto Rico, 18% of trans and non-binary youth had attempted suicide and 61% reported symptoms of depression. 33% had considered leaving Puerto Rico to find a better life. This order will only aggravate the mental health crisis and displacement that trans people already face in the archipelago. 

In July of 2025, the government prohibited gender affirming care for youth younger than 21 years old, punishing the adults who helped them with fines or even prison sentences. Now, with this new order, gender affirming care will be extremely restricted for adults. 

This regulation presents a regression and a disgrace for the transgender community, whose access to medicine will be more marginalized and who will unjustly live a lower quality of life. Our government is conspiring against decades of struggle of the LGBTQ+ community, which demonstrates two things. The first is that the Puerto Rican government hates the LGBTQ+ community and the second is that all the policies and progress that protect Puerto Ricans will be eliminated if they go against the values of the colonial elite. From the forced sterilization of a third of Puerto Rican women, forced migration, and the utilization of our country for military aggression, as well as carta normativa 25-929, colonialism seeks to control our bodies in order to advance their eugenics programs. We have a duty to become a sovereign nation and fight for our liberation!

For a free and socialist Puerto Rico with adequate healthcare access and dignity for all!

Members of JUPI Bk, JUPI Bx, Adolfina NYC, and DPC NYC/NJ hosted a speakout at Stonewall National Monument in NYC on October 6, 2025.